I very much welcome the chance to take part in the debate, because my constituency of Lincoln lives off engineering. A large part of its output is exported, and the city and its jobs depend not merely on supplying a cosy protective market in Britain, but on competing on equal terms with the best engineers in the world. Lincoln does that now, and will continue to do that, together with Britain as a whole.

It may be argued that the engineering profession is not doing well enough and that we should do more. Indeed, that may be even more vital in the coming years. That is why I welcome the report. It focuses attention on engineering and brings into relief the things that must be done to enhance the standing and achievement of engineering if we are to survive as a prosperous country.

The report broadly and starkly depicts a crisis in manufacturing. As short a time ago as 1963, 15 per cent. of the world trade in manufactures came from this country. In 1977 that figure had fallen to 9 per cent. Throughout the century this country has earned a large surplus through manufacturing. At present our trade is just in balance, but threatens to fall into deficit. Productivity has risen at a slower rate than that of our com- petitors. It is now less than half that of our neighbours in France and Germany. As a result, our profitability has consistently been the lowest among the major economies.

A particularly worrying trend is that we tend to export cheaper manufactures, but import more sophisticated goods. Inevitably that trend will lay us open to fiercer competition from the newly-industrialised countries. All those trends result from our failure of achievement in the engineering dimension.

Of course, there are exceptions. All hon. Members know of businesses that do very well. Indeed, some businesses in my constituency do well. However, the gravity of those trends is self-evident. I sense that all hon. Members are united in the belief that we should reverse them. The pace of technological change is bound to get faster. We therefore have little time in which to reverse those trends. We all recognise that the role of engineering in that struggle is crucial.

The Finniston report does a great service, because it emphasises the fundamental nature of the changes that must be made and that they are bound to take time. They cannot be accomplished overnight. As we have heard, a major change in cultural attitudes is required as much as anything else. We have many outstanding engineering achievements to our credit, but a widespread acknowledgement of engineering is lacking. A mix of disciplines unite to form a total engineering package.

My hon. Friend the Member for Ripon (Dr. Hampson) mentioned the need for salesmen and managers to be engineers. In Europe, engineering is considered a third culture, that can hold its place alongside science and art. That is not so in Britain, where it has always played a secondary role. We lack the cultural or pecuniary awards to attract the best people into engineering. Any reform should give priority to allowing engineering its rightful standing in society. We must attract our best people and graduates into the profession.

The report sets out a practical programme for achieving those reforms and bringing about the cultural revolution. It regards the the creation of the engineering authority as crucial to that end. As we have heard, the authority will be the engine of change. Its central role will be to promote the engineering dimension. Some argue that the existing Council of Engineering Institutions could develop to fulfil the role of an engineering authority, but experience suggests that that would not be so. In reality, the council is the servant of its component institutions. It must cater for the self-interest of those institutions, and is consequently pulled in various ways. It cannot concentrate on promoting the unified wider interests of engineering. In contrast, the new authority should be independent of the engineering institutions, although its members must be acceptable to those institutions.

There has been considerable debate about the exact constitution of the authority. However, there has not been much argument about the need for it. My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, West (Mr. Waldegrave) put it more eloquently than I could, when he said that the authority must become one of the pillars of society. If one wishes to achieve success in any venture, one must find the best man to put at the top. The engineering authority must promote engineering. Nobody should doubt the formidable task that would face that industry if it did not have some powerful body to coordinate its efforts, with a responsibility to concentrate wholeheartedly on promoting engineering.

The aims of the Finniston report are bound to fail. Our national approach to engineering cannot be achieved merely through the activities of the new authority. The beginnings of change lie deep in our educational system. That is why I welcome the involvement of the Department of Education and Science in all aspects of the report. Excellence in engineering must begin with the teaching of mathematics and physics, but there is a desperate shortage of qualified teachers. For example, when a comprehensive school in my constituency advertised a top mathematics job it received only three applications, and another comprehensive in my constituency cannot find a physics teacher, although Lincoln is traditionally an engineering city.

When other subjects are advertised, those schools are inundated with applications. That is not good enough. We shall never make achievements in engineering without teachers. Perhaps teachers' salary scales should be revised in accordance with deficiencies in supply and demand. We must have sufficient teachers of good quality in such vital subjects.

The Finniston report demands a broader school curriculum. As students may eventually be encouraged to turn towards engineering, the option of becoming an engineer should remain open to them for as long as possible. In addition, a potential engineer should be given a much broader outlook. When one contemplates the breadth of disciplines involved, one cannot but agree with Finniston, which argues that the links between schools and industry should be closer. The report states that Finniston would like to see every secondary school involved in one or more schools/industry scheme, and every company developing links with at least one local school. That happens in Lincoln and elsewhere. The results where it does happen are good. However, it should happen much more, and we can still do much better. I hope that the Government will take active steps to encourage it.

We must, at the earliest age in our schools raise the prestige of the engineering profession. That is vital for our national survival. If we are to do that, we must have a good supply of schoolteachers in the necessary subjects, a broadening of the curriculum and closer contacts with industry.

We all recognise the serious economic state that gave rise to the Finniston report. The report underlines the critical role that engineering has to play in our economic survival. It emphasises how fundamental the reforms will have to be if basic attitudes are to be changed and if the engineering dimension is to achieve its proper status in society. Perhaps the most useful achievement of the report is to bring home to us the seriousness of the problem and how fundamental the reforms must be if we are to succeed. It is a practical report. I have referred to the engineering authority and the education system, but progress and change are needed on many other fronts.

These issues are so important that the report must not be allowed to accumulate dust on the shelves. We expect the Government to take the report on board with the utmost seriousness and to ensure that action results.