HC Deb 09 December 1980 vol 995 c301W
Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for Industry how much has been spent on research and development programmes for the machine tool industry for each year since 1970 at constant prices; and if he is satisfied that there is sufficient investment in this field.

Mr. David Mitchell

Information available to the Department on expenditure on research and development of metal-working machine tools within industry is obtained by survey every three years. The details in current prices and estimates at constant (1975) prices are as follows:

Current prices

£ million

constant prices*

£ million

1969 5.3 11.7
1972 2.8 4.8
1975 5.7 5.7
1978 8.8 5.8
* The deflator used is appropriate to a wider group of industries, of which machine tool manufacture forms a part.
The adequacy of this investment is essentially a matter for industry.

Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for Industry what aid has been given to the machine tool industry, and in what forms, for each of the last 10 years at constant prices.

Mr. David Mitchell

The Department of Industry and its predecessors have provided assistance to the machine tool industry for each year since 1970 as follows:

£'000 current

prices

£'000 1975

prices

1970 1,159 2,113
1971 760 1,265
1972 3,088 4,863
1973 4,602 6,670
1974 3,676 4,552
1975 26,399 26,399
1976 1,452 1,225
1977 1,646 1,194
1978 4,171 2,733
1979 7,226 4,228

These figures represent the totals of assistance given each year under the pre-production order scheme between 1970 and 1974, the additional and accelerated order scheme, the machine tool industry scheme, the product and process development scheme, the microprocessor applications project, the selective investment scheme and to Alfred Herbert Ltd., and KTM Ltd.

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