§ Mr. Sheldonasked the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs what is being done to publicise the need for greater productivity and ways of achieving it.
§ Mr. M. StewartMy Department is responsible for co-ordinating publicity measures in this field. Much attention is being paid to this, with the main emphasis on practical measures rather than on exhortation.
A number of measures have been introduced or are in train following the Prime Minister's National Conference on Productivity last September. These include: a British Productivity Council campaign to spread more widely the knowledge of modern management techniques, which I launched by writing as Chairman of the National Economic Development Council to 7,000 medium sized firms inviting them to contact their local productivity associations, and which has received a good response; the preparation by the National Economic Development Office of a handbook on Government and non-Government productivity advisory services and a revised booklet on investment appraisal, which will be available shortly; the publication by the Treasury of a glossary of management techniques; the organisation by the Ministry of Labour of a series of regional conferences on the effective use of manpower; the establishment by the Ministry of Technology of a new Production Engineering Advisory Ser- 86W vice; and an initiative by the Ministry of Public Building and Works in bringing new and more productive techniques to the attention of the construction industry. D.E.A. publications addressed to management and workers (the monthly Progress Report, "Upswing" and Broadsheets) have concentrated on productivity features, as have the Ministry of Technology's monthly journal New Technology, started this year, and also the British Productivity Council's publication Target.
These and many other activities have received publicity in the national and local Press and stimulated much interest in industry. In addition, I have been glad to see that both the B.B.C. and independent television are presenting programmes in which the theme of productivity plays an important part.