§ 30. Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Industry what is his estimate of the number of jobs created or likely to be created by his industrial strategy; how many have been preserved during the same period by his policy of rescuing companies which are not within the industrial strategy; and whether he will make a statement.
Mr. Alan WilliamsThe Government's industrial strategy is a long-term programme for improving the productivity and competitiveness of the whole of British manufacturing industry. It is not practicable to assess the employment impact of the wide range of the Government's measures taken to this end.
We calculate that during the period of the industrial strategy, projects assisted under section 7 of the Industry Act 1972 have involved the creation of nearly 150,000 new jobs and the safeguarding of 26W a further 90,000 jobs. Our accelerated projects scheme, selective investment scheme and 15 sectoral schemes involve the safeguarding of many thousands of jobs.