HC Deb 11 June 1969 vol 784 cc261-2W
Mr. Fred Evans

asked the President of the Board of Trade what progress has been made on the proposal to set up a National Design Council.

Mr. Crosland

As I informed the House on 17th April, the Government accept in principle the recommendation made last year by a Working Party of the Council of Engineering Institutions (on which the Council of Industrial Design was represented) that a National Design Council should be set up to take over the present responsibilities of the Council of Industrial Design, to build on its organisation and to give greater emphasis to engineering design. This is of great importance to the competitiveness and export effort of our engineering industries. But at the same time we must naturally have careful regard to the implications of this proposal for public expenditure.

With the agreement of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Technology, and after consultation with the Council of Industrial Design and the Council of Engineering Institutions, I have invited a firm of management consultants, Messrs. John Hoskyns and Company Ltd., to consider how the new council can best be set up and develop its activities in relation to both industrial and engineering design throughout the United Kingdom.