§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps he is taking to consolidate the organisation of his Department; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HeseltineI have today announced further changes to consolidate the DTI's organisation along the lines initiated in July 1992, to take effect on 1 March 1994. The changes mark another step in restructuring the Department to ensure that it is best placed to fulfil my principal objective of helping United Kingdom business to win in world markets.
The principal changes are:
The main division sponsoring industrial sectors will be grouped under one Deputy Secretary.In recognition of the vital importance of innovation and the policies in the recent White Paper on science, engineering and technology, DTI's work on technology development will be integrated more closely with its promotion of industrial competitiveness; its work on technology transfer and the spreading of management best practice will be brought together with the work to assist small and medium-sized enterprises and develop the business link network.The divisions dealing with export promotion will be grouped under the director general, export promotion.The Invest in Britain Bureau's successful efforts are to be reinforced by establishing it as a separate division of the DTI under a new chief executive.380WThe Offshore Supplies Office will become the new Oil and Gas Projects and Supplies Office. It will have a wider remit covering oil and gas market opportunities at home and abroad both upstream and downstream including petrochemicals. It will continue its existing work to ensure that United Kingdom suppliers take full advantage of North sea market opportunities, working closely with the DTI's energy divisions, under the Minister for Energy. It will, in addition, have a new task of exploiting opportunities for major overseas projects as well as other export opportunities working as part of the DTI's export promotion effort, under the Minister for Trade.