§ 7. Mr. MacDougallTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what plans her Department has to increase the UK's manufacturing productivity levels; and if she will make a statement. [90938]
§ Alan JohnsonManufacturing matters hugely to the prosperity of the UK. But we know that our manufacturing productivity levels here in the UK are significantly lower than in some of our competitor nations. That is why this Government have focused the spotlight on manufacturing productivity through the Manufacturing Strategy it published last May, the first by any Government since the 1970s.