§ Brian CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the support available for the electronics industry. [115233]
§ Mr. Timms[holding answer 22 May 2003]The Government is supporting the electronics industry in a number of ways to create the best possible environment for innovation and enterprise so that companies can increase productivity and move to higher value products and services. We have invested over £60 million to support collaborative R&D, developed initiatives to stimulate use and uptake of information age technologies and will make an additional £100 million pa by 2005–06 to improve the skills base for electronics.
The hon. Member will no doubt be aware of work underway to simplify business support to create more flexible products, building on what we know works well, to give businesses practical support. The electronics industry will of course benefit from these changes.