§ 12. Mr. GunnellWhat plans she has to ensure that high-technology companies have the opportunity to realise their growth potential. [31139]
§ Mr. BattleThe Government are determined to create an environment in which high-technology companies can develop and grow. We are working to improve the climate for investment, to help firms to access and adapt new technologies, and to improve their management and marketing skills, and to encourage real partnership between the science and engineering base and industry.
§ Mr. GunnellExperience with Yorkshire Enterprise suggests to me that the smaller hi-tech companies often have difficulty in estimating accurately the costs of their development programmes and, as a result, frequently have to come back to their initial financier for further assistance. Is that a factor my hon. Friend takes into account when looking at the ways in which we can sustain hi-tech companies, which clearly have much to contribute to our economy?
§ Mr. BattleI am grateful to my hon. Friend. I seem to recall that he championed Yorkshire Enterprise, which used European funding to promote several programmes aimed at small and medium enterprises. I share my hon. Friend's view. When my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced the setting up of the McCullagh group, he said that we would work to identify any barriers that might exist to high-tech firms' growth.
It is important that business links, business shops in Scotland and Business Connect in Wales have personal business advisers to ensure that companies develop good business plans. We also need to address these questions to finance houses, to ensure that investment houses back high-tech companies because, although those companies are high risk, they are the seedcorn of the future.
§ Mr. Ian BruceDoes the Minister welcome the Green Paper that was published by the Secretary of State for 1191 Defence today, in which he describes the defence diversification agency effectively as a technology transfer agency, transferring technology from the Ministry of Defence to industry? I am sure that the whole House welcomes that. However, is that all that the Government will do on defence diversification? Is there no role for the Department of Trade and Industry? Have the Labour Government abandoned all the promises that Labour made to my constituents before the general election?
§ Mr. BattleThe Damascene conversions among the Conservatives never cease to amaze us. Before the general election, they opposed any introduction of defence diversification. I am delighted with that conversion. Yes, I do welcome the Green Paper published by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence and yes, we are consulted and we were involved in drawing it up.
In the Department of Trade and Industry, many other schemes are running which address the development and support of high-tech industries, not least the link awards, which we are making through the science programme, and the foresight programme, developing the blend between the science and engineering base and industry. The present Government are putting the practical partnerships together—something that was sadly lacking under the previous Administration.