HC Deb 24 January 1967 vol 739 cc1243-6
11. Mr. Gwilym Roberts

asked the Minister of Technology if he will take steps to set up a Government consultancy service to assist firms to raise their efficiency and productivity.

Mr. Benn

My Department's "Business Bureau" is already providing services of this kind, a list of which I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Following the National Productivity Conference the wide range of Government and other advisory services, existing and planned, is being examined in collaboration with the National Economic Development Office, the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress.

Mr. Roberts

Would not my right hon. Friend agree that there is need, however, to extend this service? Does he agree that one of the great problems of British industry is the number of medium and small firms with "old-boy" type managements who have no idea how or where they are going? Would my right hon. Friend further agree that the pioneer work done by the D.S.I.R. shows that an outstanding Government service can be provided in this direction at remarkably low cost?

Mr. Benn

I agree with everything my hon. Friend has said. The fact is that this is being pressed ahead as rapidly as possible. There are 100 qualified people working in the regional liaison offices, 59 industrial liaison officers in the universities and colleges, various specialist national services and procurement advisory services, and £1 million has been put into the Production Engineering Advisory Service which begins within a few weeks. Although I recognise the importance of this matter, it has to be set in the wider context of voluntary and other Government services as well. We are well aware of it.

Sir C. Osborne

Does the Minister expect the fall in national productivity, which last month fell by 4½ per cent. to the lowest it has been for two years, to continue? If so, what more can he do to stop this fall?

Mr. Benn

In so far as the question relates to the general economic situation, it goes beyond the ambit of the Question. I assure the hon. Member, however, that one of the effects of the present difficulties has been to encourage a number of firms to come and seek advice to see whether they could not escape from their own difficulties by raising productivity. This has been very encouraging.

Following is the list:

"Business Bureau"

The services of the Ministry of Technology, which together can be regarded as being a "Business Bureau", fall under three broad headings:

I. Regional Liaison services

Regional Offices

The Department's own regional staff together with Industrial Liaison Officers amount to some 100 qualified people. The Ministry has nine Regional Offices. It is an important function of the Regional Offices to help industry make full and proper use of the advisory and research facilities of the Ministry and the Research Associations. They also serve to co-ordinate the work of the Industrial Liaison Centres.

Industrial Liaison Centres

These centres based on technical colleges and universities and financed for the greater part by the Ministry, each have one or more ILOs who are members of the college staff. They are responsible for maintaining contact with local firms, particularly the smaller ones, and encouraging them to make greater use of existing scientific and technical knowledge and services. There are at present 59 such Centres.

II. Specialist national services

These are services to users of products and processes common to a wide range of industries. They are organised nationally because they need to draw on centralised scarce resources of manpower or machinery. They are in some cases organised by an independent body and will vary from being wholly financed by the Department to being independent of Government support. The aim will be for these services eventually to become as nearly as possible self-supporting with fees being charged on the basis of cost and the value of the benefit to the individual user. The continuation of a subsidy would need to be justified on the basis that the service conferred wider benefits to the community than those derived by the individual user.

These services include:

Standards A whole range of inspection, testing and authentication services are being developed. Examples are the British Calibration Service, BSI's Kitemark scheme, and the Burghard scheme for standardising specifications for electronic components. The foundation of these schemes is the work on standards by BSI, which is of course supported by the Ministry.

Procurement Advisory Services

This form of service would only be applicable to the public sector. At present it is limited to the Computer Advisory Service.

Technological Services There are a number of these specialised services, some independent, some grant aided and some wholly financed by the Department. Under this heading are included the National Computing Centre (to be supported by a Government grant-in-aid for the first few years), and the "Approaching Automation" campaign. Several of the R.A.'s provide technological services for a wide range of industries. Outstanding examples are the Welding R.A., S.I.R.A., and P.E.R.A. The last named organisation will operate for the Ministry the Production Engineering Advisory Service due to commence in the spring of this year. S.I.R.A. provides a consulting service to industry in general through its SIRAID scheme. Central Facilities There are cases when sharing of expensive facilities can produce substantial economies. Examples are the Scottish Research Reactor Centre, N.P.L. Ship Division and wind tunnel facilities and N.E.L. test rigs.

III. Industry services

These are advisory and information services provided for individual industries and dealing with technology, management and industry etc.

Advisory services covering one or more of these fields are an important feature of the 50 R.A.'s (of which 48 receive grants from the Department).

Information and advisory work has always been a major factor of the work of the Ministry's research stations which have a substantial and growing contact with firms. Information and advice are provided without charge although for more substantial investigations a charge will generally be made.

In general the purpose of the Ministry is to act as a catalyst in the development of the closest contact between the Government's establishments, the R.A.'s, the universities and technical colleges, and the firms themselves.

It is intended that these industry services should be reviewed industry by industry and technology by technology with a view to strengthening their impact on industry's problems.

Review of needs for information The Department is intending to initiate a pilot exercise in the course of the next year to determine the information needs of firms and the ways to supply them.