§ 1. Mr. Mark Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he is satisfied with the take-up and results of the second small engineering firms investment scheme.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. David Trippier)Yes, Sir. More than 6,100 applications for support were received, representing potential investment in new advanced capital equipment of almost £300 million.
§ Mr. RobinsonI congratulate my hon. Friend on that excellent reply. Can he confirm my impression that SEFIS is not limited to British firms and is open to other firms? If so, why is that so?
§ Mr. TrippierI am grateful to my hon. Friend for that compliment. Because of our international obligations we cannot make SEFIS a purely "Buy British" scheme. In any event, not all equipment is available from the United Kingdom. However, 60 per cent. of the orders were placed with British manufacturers, in the teeth of some very strong foreign competition.
§ Mr. ParkWhat representations has the Minister received from companies about the impact of the Budget proposals on their investment programmes?
§ Mr. TrippierThe CBI survey recently published says that the impact is very good indeed.
§ Mr. Richard PageIn view of the success of the first scheme and now the second one, and the high British content in the take-up, what plans does my hon. Friend have for introducing a Mk. 3 scheme?
§ Mr. TrippierThere is no intention of introducing a SEFIS 3 scheme, although in the recent Budget debate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a similar scheme to SEFIS for the textile and footwear industries, which has been widely welcomed.