HC Deb 10 June 2004 vol 422 cc565-6W
Ms Coffey

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what action she is taking to help small and medium-sized UK manufacturing companies. [177762]

Nigel Griffiths

The DTI and Government have taken a number of measures includingEstablishing the Manufacturing Advisory Service Providing £600 million support for business R&D through R&D tax credit Increasing the number of Modern Apprenticeship trainees from 75,000 in 1997 to 255,00 in 2004 Cutting corporation tax Manufacturing SMEs also benefit from DTIs business support products for Knowledge Transfer, R&D, Best Practice