Industry And Commerce (Assistance)

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asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will list the schemes his Department provides to assist industry and commerce.

The main assistance measures currently provided by the Department of Industry are:

(a) General support arrangements under section 8 of the Industry Act 1972 for assisting large projects;

(b) Six schemes offering assistance under section 8 of the Industry Act as follows:

(i) Flexible manufacturing—including robotics—scheme;

(ii) Coal firing scheme;

(iii) Private sector steel;

(iv) Microelectronics industry support programme;

(v) Computer aided design and test equipment support;

(vi) Small firms loans guarantee scheme.

(c) Support for innovation; a general support facility for promoting research and development: Special arrangements within this facility include:

(i) Microelectronics application project;

(ii) Information technology;

(iii) Fibre optics and optoelectronics scheme;

(iv) Electronic computer aided design, manufacture and test;

(v) Computer aided design and computer aided manufacture;

(vi) Software products scheme;

(vii) Advisory services such as the manufacturing advisory service for small and medium-sized companies.

(d) Regional support under the Industry Act in the form of regional development grants and selective assistance using powers under section 7 of the Act which include:

(i) Office and service industries scheme;

(ii) In-plant training scheme;

(iii) Exchange risk guarantee scheme.

(e) Other assistance measures include:

(i) Shipbuilding intervention fund;

(ii) The Shipbuilding redundancies payments scheme;

(iii) Loan guarantee and interest support schemes for shipbuilding;

(iv) Support for redundant steel workers under ECSC's iron and steel employees re-adaption benefits scheme;

(v) Launch aid under the Civil Aviation Act 1949;

(vi) Mineral exploration grant scheme;

(vii) A small firms service offering information and counselling.

Volume 32: debated on Wednesday 17 November 1982