Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Sheldon (Labour). It was answered on Tuesday, 24 July 2007.

Economy: Manufacturing

Question: My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that reply and for his assurance that manufacturing plays an important part in his working life here in Parliament, but does he accept that manufacturing is not only that but a major employer and that the failure to increase skills and productivity is the real problem before us? This is partly why our trade deficit is so high. My noble friend has agreed on previous occasions that productivity is the key and that the Government are directing their energies to improving productivity, not least in the skills sector. Will he inform the House what is actually being done in that regard?

Answer: My Lords, it is quite right that the key to manufacturing successfully in the 21st century, in which China wants your lunch and India wants your dinner, is that we ensure that the skills level goes up all the time so that value-added, innovative manufacturing happens. To give the House an idea, I point out that 125,000 people are employed in our UK aerospace industry. You cannot get more value-added and innovative than that. That, with dependants, is probably 500,000 people. The answer is to skill the people. The Government are working on that basis in many, many ways. As the House knows, I was the UK skills envoy in my former life. That was about getting low-skilled people up into intermediate skills. We also have the second most important and successful university sector in the world. That is adding value every day.

Secondary information