§ Baroness Perry of Southwarkasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress they have made in implementing the recommendations contained in Sir John Fairclough's 2002 Report, Rethinking Construction Innovation and Research. [HL745]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)Although the Government have made good progress towards a number of the key recommendations within Sir John's report, the report has been overtaken by subsequent wider ranging reviews of government support for innovation and technology development.
Following Sir John's report the Government challenged the Strategic Forum for Construction and nCRISP, the new Construction Research and Innovation Strategy Panel, to develop and own the strategic vision for the sector called for by Sir John. There has been some progress towards this goal but more needs to be done.
The DTI technology strategy has helped introduce Sir John's recommendations for longer-term, larger, collaborative programmes of R&D procured on merit, focused on productivity. The emerging knowledge transfer networks will also reflect the centres and networks of excellence Sir John recognised as being crucial to long-term thinking. The onus is on the industry to make credible bids for funding under these arrangements.
Sir John clearly set out the key role of government as client, as-well-as sponsor, regulator and policy maker. There has been progress in public sector clients acting as a driver for innovation, notably in Health and Education.