§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will list in the Official Report a summary of the main recommendations of the report from the Sector Working Party Paper on the radio, radar and electronic capital goods industry listing the preliminary recommendations submitted to date, together with the action taken so far.
Mr. Alan WilliamsThe first report of the Sector Working Party (SWP) which made a number of recommendations has already been placed in the Library of the House. The following is a summary of the main recommendations put to Government together with an outline of the action taken so far:
Recommendation.—Shortages of skilled workers such as electronic test technicians should be prevented.
Action.—This problem is still under examination by the SWP.
Recommendation.—ECGD should extend territorial coverage and raise credit limits for certain countries and extend the list of eligible goods where specifications call for a proportion of foreign equipment in the product.
Action.—The country credit limits are constantly under review. ECGD is already prepared to cover substantial amounts of foreign content. There is no restriction in the case of contracts with payment terms not exceeding 180 days credit, but for obvious balance of payments reasons the policy is more restrictive where longer credit is allowed. Even here some foreign content can be included and under reciprocal arrangements with the EEC it can be as high as 30–40 per cent. when it comes from another EEC country.
Recommendation.—Government should consider the needs of the mobile radio industry for additional frequency allocations.
Action.—Additional frequencies are to be bid for at the next World Administrative Radio Conference in 1979. Only by having additional frequencies can mobile radio be extended without sacrificing another service.
Recommendation.—Government commitment to a policy of maximising the British content in the purchase of equipment for the public sector is called for. A regular and detailed statement of the overseas purchases by the public sector should be published as a basis for industry to undertake import-saving schemes.
Action.—New machinery is being set up to identify what can be done to encourage United Kingdom firms to match more closely the capacity of British industry with the requirements of the public sector so as to reduce yet further the already very small proportion of public sector purchasing which comes from abroad.
557WRecommendation.—The SWP should develop proposals as to how a Buy British policy could best be implemented.
Action.—This is under consideration by the Sector Working Party.