Intellectual Property Bill [Lords]

Debate between Bob Stewart and Gordon Birtwistle

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley) (LD)]

I do not want to delay the House long because I have just a few comments, mainly about business growth created by the design industry across the country. The design industry alone is worth £33.5 billion, but we could put many billions on top of that given the manufacturing that takes place from designs that are developed in this country. It is vital to protect that industry from those who try to copy and fraudulently get involved in it.

There is a company in my constituency that one would not think was a massive designer of equipment for the film industry. In fact, however, AMS Neve designs the music mixing systems that are used by all the main pop groups and pop singers across the world, and it was the main designer of the music mixing systems for the film “The King’s Speech”. For that, the owner, Mark Crabtree, got a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award. It is extremely unusual for somebody working in manufacturing to get such an award. It was developed, designed and manufactured in my constituency. It is so high-tech that he has a problem protecting his designs.

The games industry and the fashion industry are other major industries for which it is vital that we protect design. Many industries are desperate to steal our major designs. Burnley college has an amazing design department. The people there design clothes of the future, particularly for the Asian market. They need their designs to be protected, which will happen under the Bill.

It is important that we protect those industries because 350,000 people work in them. We cannot put such industries at risk. They are high-tech, and are in the main developed by graduates and students of our universities. The Bill needs to be developed to ensure that they are protected against fraudsters and other people around the world who would be delighted to get into those industries. We are No. 1 in intellectual property.

[Bob Stewart]

It crosses my mind that it must be extremely difficult to protect our industries when countries —I am perhaps thinking of one very large country in Asia—believe it is in their interests to steal designs for things such as games and do not seem to give a damn about intellectual property.

[Gordon Birtwistle]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. When I was in engineering, we did a staggering amount of work for a local company that made wallpaper machinery. The company lost the majority of the manufacture of the kit but managed to hang on to the high-tech part of it. The country to which my hon. Friend is alluding could not develop the high-tech part, but it could do the basic engineering—the steelwork and building the machines. Fortunately, that equipment is secured in the UK, because that country has not yet developed the skills to develop the high-tech part—changing the machine for the different colours used in the manufacture of wallpaper. The situation is the same in the carpet industry. That country can make the machines easily, but it cannot develop the technology to produce the carpet patterns.

I am delighted with the Bill and am pleased that the majority of hon. Members agree with it—there seems to be no opposition to it at all. I hope that, in Committee, any problems with clauses 13 and 21 are resolved so that we have a good, solid, secure Bill in the House on Third Reading. I hope that we can put the legislation on the statute book to protect the industries of the future and the jobs of the people working in them.

Jobs and Business

Debate between Bob Stewart and Gordon Birtwistle

Friday 10th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Birtwistle]

I can tell the hon. Gentleman that I was pleased to visit the Rolls-Royce training facility in Derby only a couple of weeks ago, and I was delighted to see the millions of pounds of investment being put into it. Rolls-Royce has picked up the story and is getting on with it.

There has been a lack of apprenticeships and training, certainly in engineering, in which I have been involved all my life, for the past 20 years. We cannot have someone who is an apprentice today assembling aeroplane engines tomorrow. It is a long process. The Government have started that process with the apprenticeships scheme, and over the next few years we will be able to deliver on this. It is very difficult to train apprentices to become skilled people who can deliver what is needed for $9 trillion-worth of aeroplanes over the next 20 years, but we must get on with it. Thankfully, we have made a start, although we are not moving fast enough.

We quickly need to resolve the situation with the national aerospace supply chain centre, which has been agreed by the Government but for some reason is stuck in the Whitehall mandarins division. Having been here for three years, my view of what goes on behind the scenes with the mandarins is that it seems like “Yes, Prime Minister”. I watched that series on television and thought, “No, it can’t be like that”, but actually it is. We come here and listen to all the statements about what we are doing, and then it is still being done 12 months down the line. Setting up the national aerospace supply chain centre must be a priority, and I hope that it is located at the Samlesbury site of BAE Systems. I hope that the proposed national skills centre will be set up at the same site. That centre will train 600 apprentices a year for the aerospace industry, for United Utilities, and for the shale gas industry—another industry coming through in the north-west that will need skilled people.

[Bob Stewart]

Many people who learn trades in the armed forces have a problem translating their qualifications into civilian life. We could do more to equate armed forces qualifications from places such as Cosford with those that are required in the aerospace industry, because there are people who could easily move into that industry.

[Gordon Birtwistle]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I was about to move on to the oil industry, to which former members of the armed forces make a substantial contribution. I was on an oil rig in the North sea about 12 months ago and quite a number of ex-military personnel were working there. The medical officer was an ex-Army officer and some of the cooks in the restaurants were ex-Army personnel. It is good to see that they are making such a contribution.

The oil industry, which is more or less a forgotten industry, contributes billions of pounds to economy. One national oil company is about to invest $11 billion in the North sea. The site is about 100 km off the coast of Scotland, but every bit of kit is being provided from overseas. That is an outrageous scandal. That kit should be produced in the UK. Unfortunately, we do not have the companies to do that any more because we have let them disappear over the past 20 years. The previous Government let them disappear without batting an eyelid because they thought that the financial sector could bail us out of anything.