Manufacturing and Engineering

Debate between Glyn Davies and Neil Carmichael

Tuesday 6th March 2012 Westminster Hall

[Neil Carmichael]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that interesting intervention. Alison Wolf’s report is clear on the need for proper training in STEM subjects before beginning to worry too much about qualifications. It is right that there should be qualifications in engineering—and those are available in Stroud—but, as I have said, the STEM subjects need to be rigorously promoted in schools and colleges. Alison Wolf made a strong case for taking that line, and I hope the Government will pursue it with rigour.

I want to return to the subject of ABB, which is a member of the Enhancing Value taskforce launched by the Council for Industry and Higher Education. A report is coming out in July on how to make the most of UK research. I hope that the Government will read it and draw lessons from it, if it contains significant lessons; judging by the quality of ABB, I am sure that it will.

No discussion of engineering and manufacturing can fail to include a mention of the European Union. It is critical that we should recognise—as the Prime Minister did yesterday, powerfully—that 40% of our exports go to Europe. We are attached to Europe through all the supply chains that I have mentioned, and we must recognise that, in relation to trade development, Europe is a powerful magnet for interests and a strong promoter of our interests globally. A key point that came up in The Economist this weekend is the need to ensure that small firms can become big firms. We must look carefully at how the European Union is regulated and remove any barriers that prevent a small firm from growing.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend for allowing me to intervene and to associate myself with his speech, almost all of which I agree with. The point he makes about small firms becoming large firms is crucial in a rural area. Manufacturing can be a key part in promoting a rural economy. I have spent quite a long time involved in this industry. In mid-Wales, the proportion of manufacturing has grown over 20 years from about 7% to 25%. In an imbalanced economy in which financial services are dominant, a concentration on manufacturing can be particularly beneficial in a rural area. Does my hon. Friend agree with that assessment?

[Neil Carmichael]

Definitely. My own constituency is rural. I have been celebrating, and will continue to celebrate, manufacturing on my patch. I have made it clear that there are still great opportunities for developing manufacturing and engineering in my rural constituency. The issue is to ensure that the right infrastructure is available, which I will come on to shortly.

Let me just finish the question on the European Union. The EU matters to us; we need to be there to promote our economic interests and the interests of our manufacturers and engineers, but the terms of the debate about Europe sometimes become confused. It is essential that we recognise, understand and promote the fact that Britain is part of the European Union and that Europe is a place in which we can and should do business in the most unregulated and appropriate way. We need to send out a signal to our businesses that we are behind them in that project.

There are one or two measures that I wanted to cover, but many of the interventions have already touched on them. One area of Government policy that has not been mentioned is the role of local enterprise partnerships. My own in Gloucestershire is doing some useful work in analysing the needs of businesses, the supply of skills, and the supply chain issues in connection with business. LEPs should work well with local authorities. As it happens, ours is coterminous with Gloucestershire county council, which is doing a huge amount of work in promoting economic development in our area.

A £100 million investment programme is under way and is geared towards focusing on better skills, which is consistent with the work of the LEP. It is also geared towards infrastructure. It has already contributed to the campaign to redouble the Swindon-Kemble line, which will improve the speed and quantity of our rail links, thus ensuring that we have infrastructure that is fit for purpose. It has also invested £7.5 million in broadband, to which I have referred. It is absolutely brilliant that our county council and LEP have a local focus. Critically, I applaud the Government for creating LEPs and for ensuring that local authorities work together and have a duty to co-operate in developing economic growth.

Social Care Funding

Debate between Glyn Davies and Neil Carmichael

Thursday 10th November 2011 Westminster Hall

[Neil Carmichael]

That is very kind. [Interruption.] Hon. Members are all very optimistic.

[Glyn Davies]

It might be a good point to throw into the debate that, a fortnight ago, I visited a woman who was having her 108th birthday. The interesting thing about her—I think it contributed to her longevity—was that she had been a member of the Conservative association ever since she was allowed to join in 1928.

[Neil Carmichael]

Well, we certainly have experience in our Conservative association back at home. An interesting thing about my constituency is that I came across somebody who was 106. She wanted to make a complaint and she came up to me at some speed. I did not think it was anything to do with the care she was getting, and it was not: she had received a birthday card from Her Majesty the Queen every year for the past six years, but unfortunately she had received the same one each year, and she wanted a different one.

As that story shows, we have an ageing population, and that brings challenges, of which dementia is obviously one. More and more people are experiencing dementia, not just because they have it but because a family member has, and that can be just as challenging. We need to prepare the ground because an increasing number of people have dementia.

--- Later in debate ---

[Neil Carmichael]

This is certainly becoming a surprisingly wide-ranging debate. We have thrashed out the issue of EMA very carefully and thoroughly in the House of Commons—indeed, those of us on the Education Committee produced a useful report on the subject—but the Government have to think about wider issues in connection with post-16 education and so on. However, that is a separate issue; the important point here is that people who are going to school are carers, and I want the Department of Health to register that.

Another important aspect is the number of people with Parkinson’s. That problem is increasing all the time, and it is right that we focus our attention on it. The reason I mention such difficulties—not to the exclusion of others—is that it is important that we think carefully about personalised budgets so that people get tailor-made provision that they are happy with, and so that we join the NHS up with social care. I made that point in an intervention on my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth but I want to repeat it, because part of the answer is to ensure that fewer people end up in hospital, and we can do that by ensuring that the social care structure spots problems before they become serious or overwhelming and prevents problems from starting in the first place. If the social care system dovetails completely with the NHS system and is accessible and transparent, people who need care, and families with members who require care, will feel they are being properly listened to.

[Glyn Davies]

Let me make a point in the form of a question. It touches on several of the issues that my hon. Friend has just mentioned, and particularly on Parkinson’s disease. Does he share my concern that once people enter a care home, there is not the same awareness of the need to look for dementia or Parkinson’s disease as there is outside? There is not the same awareness of the onset of those diseases, because people are deemed just to be elderly, when in fact they are suffering from an illness.