HC Deb 12 February 1992 vol 203 cc972-3
16. Mr. Tony Banks

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will increase the level of expenditure on the environmental technology innovation scheme.

Mr. Lilley

Although there has been a good response so far to the environmental technology innovation scheme, there are no plans to increase the current allocation of £12 million.

Mr. Banks

Given the nature of the tasks facing industry, that seems a rather small amount of money. Is any of it used to find alternatives to CFCs in the manufacture of refrigerators, foam, and so on? I assume that the Minister is aware that 750,000 tonnes of CFCs are used in the world every year and that that has resulted in an ozone layer hole as large as Alaska. What are the Government doing to further alternative technologies?

Mr. Lilley

We believe that this scheme will attract considerable sums of private money for the development of such technologies. We believe that small and medium-sized companies, which tend to be the most innovative, will be persuaded to develop new technologies and that that investment will result in considerable leverage. About 280 applications have already been received. I am not sure whether any of them cover the technology that the hon. Gentleman has mentioned, but, like him, I recognise the importance of solving the problem and hope that, by this scheme or otherwise, solutions will be found.

Mr. Brazier

Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating staff at the university of Kent and the two commercial pharmaceutical companies with whom the university is combining in a venture called "Viridian", which is a programme of environmental biotechnology based entirely on bacteria that are naturally available? Under that programme, they have been able to demonstrate ways of breaking up many dangerous industrial wastes. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that shows that there is scope, through a range of Government and quasi-government bodies, to encourage action beyond what can be done with direct Government money?

Mr. Lilley

I certainly join my hon. Friend in congratulating those who are involved in this research. I recently had the privilege of opening the display on biotechnology in George street. This is a subject in which Britain has a lead over the rest of Europe and much of the world. We want to strengthen that lead, as we believe that it is in the interests of British industry, British science and the world environment.