§ Mr. Normantonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a further statement about the use of industrial liaison centres, following that made on 3rd October.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantIn my discussion with the Smaller Firms Council of the CBI I was referring to the hard core of manufacturers who were believed to make recurring use of this service without being stimulated by approaches from industrial liaison officers. When I announced on 9th August that we had decided to end financial support for it next year I paid tribute to the work done by these officers and I gladly do so again.
As was made clear in the Bolton Report (Cmnd. 4811) they have recently been making more than 13,000 visits to smaller firms and handling more than 26,000 inquiries between them each year. I repeat that I hope very much that as part of their normal relations with industry and business in general colleges and universities will be able to continue to help these firms; and I extended our support to mid-1973 to give the authorities concerned more time to consider the future employment of their present industrial liaison officers in a new capacity.—[Vol. 842, c. 462–3.]