Dr Jeremy Bray: What consideration has the Secretary of State given to training programme cuts and their effects on Lanarkshire in particular? During the coming financial year, the training support for Lanarkshire steel workers received from European Community funds will expire. Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the contribution to overheads will therefore bear heavily on the training provided for young...
Dr Jeremy Bray: How much?
Dr Jeremy Bray: rose—
Dr Jeremy Bray: I believe that the Secretary of State's last words were lost.
Dr Jeremy Bray: Is the Minister aware that there are very few scientists who would expect him to go into a policy purdah for a year while he mulls over the questions of organisation? Is he aware that if he does not establish his own leadership and that of his office on science policy before the White Paper is published, he will have great difficulty in doing so afterwards?
Dr Jeremy Bray: My right hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore) made a point echoed from a different geopolitical standpoint by the right hon. Member for Shropshire, North (Mr. Biffen), but the two have been long-standing allies and they are both still wrong. I should like to concentrate on where we go from here, not on the past. The economy is in such poor shape that a crisis...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Does the Minister agree that, when comparing like with like among those firms—apart from the pharmaceutical industry—there is a major lag between spending by British companies and that of their industrial competitors overseas? Does the Minister see any chance of closing that gap if we fail to provide the incentives to firms to increase their industrial research and development that are...
Dr Jeremy Bray: I wish to ask the Leader of the House questions about the Science and Technology Select Committee, about which my hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell) has already asked. I hope that the Committee does not suffer from the disadvantages that my hon. Friend fears. The list of ministerial responsibilities defines the Chancellor of the Duchy as being also responsible for the Office...
Dr Jeremy Bray: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has for the reclamation and redevelopment of steel sites in Scotland.
Dr Jeremy Bray: Is the Minister aware that Ravenscraig cast its last slab of steel this morning and that steel making has now ceased in Scotland? Does he accept that, to the end, Ravenscraig workers and the community that sustained them demonstrated the skills and responsibilities needed in a modern industry? Will he therefore accelerate the reclamation and redevelopment of the steel sites in Scotland so...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Is the Chancellor of the Duchy aware that the science communities—not only in Britain but in France and Germany—want the European framework research programme to be well supported? Does he propose any steps to bring the national peer groups together, so that, with their pooled wisdom, they can help to improve administration standards in Europe?
Dr Jeremy Bray: I welcome this first speech by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in his capacity as science Minister and I congratulate him on his appointment as Minister responsible for the Office of Science and Technology. It is right to bring together in the Cabinet Office the responsibility across Government for science and technology issues, and the specific responsibility for the research...
Dr Jeremy Bray: How easy it is for matches to be made across even those stormy seas. The right hon. Gentleman has interrupted my chain of thought about the likely difficulties that we will get into if the improvement in technological competitiveness, which I accept has been making some progress in recent years, does not make much faster progress in the next few years. To reduce the risk to more acceptable...
Dr Jeremy Bray: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, but information on the extent to which that is happening is simply not available at the moment. I do not see how the Government can formulate a coherent policy on that matter unless they are able to follow the rates of technology transfer, the present state of technology in use and so on.
Dr Jeremy Bray: Indeed, that would help. More widely, the Government need to find a big bang in manufacturing—some measure which would have a bigger and better effect on manufacturing industry in the 1990s than deregulation and the big bang had on financial services in the 1980s—not a black hole, but still less a white dwarf. The Government will wish to look in the same direction as they looked in...
Dr Jeremy Bray: I shall talk about research and development tax incentives specifically in a moment. I was referring to the ordinary investment allowances in plant and machinery. A firm's research expenditure must be seen in the context of its overall strategy and innovation policies. It is useless to treat R and D expenditure on its own. The National Economic Development Council innovation working party...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Thankfully, that argument played an important part in fighting off Hanson and stopping it from pursuing its interests in making a bid for ICI. Mercifully, that danger has been removed for the time being. I agree with my hon. Friend that the behaviour of the conglomerates in supporting research and development needs careful examination. A way of reducing the inadequacy of the general level of...
Dr Jeremy Bray: I welcome that, and hope that the Chancellor will follow through the expenditure implications. Continuing support will clearly be required to do the job properly and set the process free of day-to-day interference by Ministers or officials, which would bias the outcome of the work. I certainly welcome the suggestion that the Fellowship of Engineering should be included—we shall soon learn...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Will the hon. Lady give way?
Dr Jeremy Bray: As the hon. Lady knows, I have given her credit in the past for some reading of the background material, which I have also tried to follow. However, she has got somewhat confused on a number of the details. Will she oblige the House by placing in the Library the references to the scientific literature from which she draws her facts? By that I mean the original literature and not just the...
