§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will compare the amount of Government aid granted by the Federal Republic of Germany, France and the United Kingdom to their respective computer industries over the past three years and projected aid already announced or scheduled; and what is the percentage share of national companies in their domestic markets for the last year for whch figures are available.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantDirect comparison of the United Kingdom, French and German support programmes is very difficult and any attempt to give a brief summary of the positiion would cause confusion. I would therefore refer my hon. Friend to the memoranda provided by my Department to the Select Committee on Science and Technology and published in the appendices to the minutes of evidence for the 1972–73 Session 117W —ref. 97-vii—a copy of which I am sending to him. As far as projected United Kingdom aid is concerned, the Government have announced support of £25£8 million of the launching aid type for ICL's research and development programme in the period October 1973 to September 1976. The Government's contribution to other measures of support to the industry is currently anticipated to be in the region of £3 million per annum. The computer industry is also expected to benefit from the microelectronics support scheme under which expenditure of up to £10 million is anticipated up to 1978–79.
Official figures showing the shares of domestic markets held by French and German national companies are not available on a comparable basis to those set out for the United Kingdom market in the memoranda referred to above, but ICL is generally accepted as the only European company which holds a share of its domestic market on a par with that of IBM.