§ Mr. Freemanasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the Government will extend the 327W small engineering firms investment scheme to firms which employ under 500 people but which may be subsidiaries of larger firms either resident or foreign.
§ Mr. TrippierThe purpose of the small engineering firms investment scheme 2 was to assist United Kingdom-based engineering companies to invest in advanced capital equipment in order to improve their manufacturing ability and productivity; the maximum employment level was set at 500 to direct support to genuinely independent small and medium-sized companies. There is nearly always some advantage—technical, financial, trading or management —in being a member of a group. This is why it was decided that a company which is part of a group exceeding 500 employees would be ineligible for SEFIS 2 support.
The scheme closed on 30 September 1983 and there are no plans for SEFIS 2 to be reopened in the foreseeable future.