§ 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 on the plastics materials industry listing the preliminary recommendations submitted to date, together with the action taken so far.
Mr. Alan Williams, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 16th November 1976; Vol. 919, c. 550], gave the following information:
The information requested is as follows:
Recommendation.—The Government, in cooperation with the petrochemical industry, should formulate a United Kingdom petrochemical policy which promotes downstream development based on North Sea feedstock rather than exporting feedstock before its conversion to high value intermediate such as plastic materials.Action.—In his Written Answer on 10th November outlining the Government's petrochemical strategy my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry emphasised the importance we attach to downstream developments.Recommendation.—Companies should urgently review their investment programmes with a view to identifying projects needing early approval in order to take maximum advantage of home and export market opportunities.Action.—My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry has written to a number of leading companies drawing their attention to this recommendation.Recommendation.—The organic sector strategy should be integrated with the developmental strategy of the plastics materials sector and NEDO should examine the way in which such co-ordination can be organised. An important purpose of the integrated approach would be to bring about an improvement in the international position of the United Kingdom plastics materials sector, in particular to aim to achieve 5 per cent. of the continental EEC plastics market. A key factor would be to ensure that the necessary action is taken to put this into effect.Action.—The statement to the House on 10th November announced a comprehensive 727W policy covering all aspects of the petrochemical industry. Co-ordination between Sector Working Parties is assured by NEDO.Recommendation.—The forward demand for plastics materials in Western Europe should be better understood and defined. A consultancy should be commissioned to obtain this information.Action.—I hope that NEDO will shortly commission a study to report during 1977.Recommendation.—The availability of trained production engineers in the sector should be examined by those Government and industry agencies responsible for manpower services, training and education. Any necessary corrective measures should be taken.Action.—The Government and the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) have published a consultative document " Training for Vital Skills" which outlines a way in which the difficulty of ensuring an adequate supply of trained labour might be tackled. The retention of skilled engineering craftsmen is one of the matters being studied by the joint NEDO/MSC Working Party, on which both sides of the engineering industry are represented. Not all the available places in scientific and engineering disciplines at the institutions of higher education have been taken up, and the educational authorities are doing what they can to encourage suitable students to take these courses.Recommendation.—The NEDO Process Plan! Working Party should examine the ability of the United Kingdom process plant industry to supply the requirements of the plastics materials strategy.Action.—This work will be included in the second stage development of the strategy for this sector once the results of the consultancy mentioned above are known.Recommendation.—Government policies to deal with inflation should take full account of the investment requirements of the plastics materials strategy.Action.—The weight of the Sector Working Parties' opinion was taken into account in our modifications in the Price Code which were introduced on 1st August this year.Recommendation.—Government should give due consideration to the ability of the United Kingdom environment to absorb pollution and should ensure that legislative and administrative policies for protecting the environment do not weaken the natural advantage for petrochemical investment which the United Kingdom enjoys at present.Action.—Our support for this recommendation is witnessed by the Government's recent stand in the EEC on emission standards and other environmental legislation.