§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures he plans to introduce to encourage UK manufacturing companies to adopt the best practice techniques of their international competitors. [71644]
§ Mr. BattleThere is a wide variety of existing measures available to manufacturing companies to learn from and adopt the best practice of their international competitors. New measures include the CBI-led "Fit for the Future" Campaign, launched by the Secretary of State in December 1998 and featured in the recently published Competitiveness White Paper. The Campaign will provide an umbrella to enable business to get help and advice when and where is it needed. The Campaign is business led and is supported by the Department to ensure coverage of all sectors and sizes of industry.
The White Paper announced other measures designed to increase competitiveness through the process of "Business learning from Business". Two examples are the adaptation of the successful automotive sector project where "world-class" engineers work within the supply base to make significant improvements in manufacturing practice. The Department will be investing £15 million to support projects in up to 10 new sectors. A further example is the Department's work to gather international data based to the UK Benchmarking Index. This development will enable SMEs to compare their own business performance with peer groups in the UK and world-wide.