§ 20. Mr. Macdonaldasked the Minister of Technology what steps he takes to ensure that recommendations from the Computer Aided Design Committee are adequately considered by a representative body or range of firms from the industries involved.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Technology (Dr. Jeremy Bray)There is feed-back of information to industry through the membership of the Committee and its sub-committees. Also the reports of the Committee, including its recommendations, have been published and receive wide circulation. Where the application of computer aided design to particular industries has been studied the industries concerned are consulted through seminars.
§ Mr. MacdonaldAs this Committee is largely composed of industrialists and was set up with the express purpose of ensuring that Mintech computer research is of practical interest to industry, how does it come about that on the first report of the Committee, which was unanimous, Mintech states that five out of eight 421 recommendations are of no interest to industry? Either the wrong people are making the recommendations or the wrong people are listening to them.
§ Dr. BrayIf my hon. Friend reads the reports of the Computer Aided Design Committee he will see that while valuable recommendations were made on the design of pipework, they were somewhat general and needed to be worked out in detail in discussions with particular firms. That is under way, some useful conclusions are emerging and some contracts have been placed.