HC Deb 01 February 1984 vol 53 cc246-8
2. Mr. Eggar

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on his plans for reorganisation of his Department.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Norman Tebbit)

I am pursuing a number of initiatives designed to fuse the work of the two former Departments. In particular, I am bringing much closer together the work on support of industry and commerce and work concerned with trade promotion, competition policy and regulation.

Mr. Eggar

What aims and objectives has my right hon. Friend set for his Department during the rest of this Parliament, and what further action does he think will be necessary on the organisational side to achieve these aims?

Mr. Tebbit

As my hon. Friend may know, my Department recently published a small brochure on the Department's aims, and the central aim is: To encourage, assist, and ensure the proper regulation of, British trade, industry and commerce; to increase the growth of world trade and the national production of wealth. There are a number of subsidiary aims as well. I have instituted a system of clearer priorities for the Department to achieve and a better system for the allocation of resources and of checking that the priorities are achieved.

Mr. Hoyle

Following the reorganisation of the right hon. Gentleman's Department, what section will be dealing with the automobile industry and what plans will be laid with it to ask of Nissan that genuine British parts are involved and not merely British content, which can be meaningless and not provide jobs in Britain for the components industry?

Mr. Tebbit

There is a division of the Department which is responsible for the development of policies towards the motor industry. Since the merger I have consolidated the work which was put in train by my predecessor, the right hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Parkinson), which is designed to bring into the sponsorship divisions an extra awareness of trading aspects, consumer protection and regulatory matters. As for the part of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question on the Nissan project, it may be that he will be able to catch the eye of the Chair at a later stage this afternoon.

Mr. Forman

To what extent will my right hon. Friend's plans for the reorganisation of his Department assist or coincide with a change in the balance of expenditure within it which is more in favour of industries with prospects for the future and less in favour of propping up those which really have no future?

Mr. Tebbit

My Department is anxious not to prop up companies which have no future. However, many industries which are referred to as old fashioned can make a sharp comeback, as a number of firms in the textile industry have shown.

Mr. Nicholas Winterton

Quite right.

Mr. Tebbit

That can happen through the adoption of new technologies. It is our task to ensure that that happens, so far as we can. I intend that the Department will have a rather more active role in the sponsorship of some of the service industries, not least the financial services.

Mr. Wrigglesworth

Will the reorganisation to which the right hon. Gentleman refers strengthen the parts of the Department dealing with competition policy? If so, will he tell us how his Department proposes to deal with what we hear the Government have decided are the natural monopolies in the public sector?

Mr. Tebbit

I am sure that my policies will reach parts of government and Departments which others cannot reach, as is said sometimes in advertisements. We place great stress on competition policy. The hon. Gentleman might care to have a copy of the speech which I made yesterday at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Office of Fair Trading.

Mr. Shore

I think the right hon. Gentleman will acknowledge that the great weakness of and danger to the British economy, certainly in the past, has been the balance of payments in both manufactured goods and invisibles. I should like to be assured that, in the merger of the two former Departments, ample resources of intelligence and expertise will be available for the promotion of British trade interests in respect of policy and actual promotion of visible and invisible earnings. Equally, I hope that resources will be devoted to import replacement. Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that there is a great danger, as evinced in the previous period of merger of the two former Departments, when the interests of industry, which are often very much geared to the home market, are allowed to dominate the broader interests of trade?

Mr. Tebbit

I listened carefully to the right hon. Gentleman. The prime cause of success or failure in these matters is not so much the work of the Department as that of those in industry and commerce. I intend that we shall have a vigorous programme of trade promotion. Everyone in the Department, from Ministers to officers, is aware of that. I hope that there will be a proper balance between all those interests in the Department. I do not believe that Government resources should ever be described as "ample", but they could be described as "sufficient", and they are sufficient.