Lord Palmer of Childs Hill
Main Page: Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)(3 days, 9 hours ago)
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Lord Katz (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord for his question. He, like me, will be waiting with bated breath for the publication of the Government’s industrial strategy White Paper, which will set out the Government’s approach to investing in eight priority sectors—those deemed most likely to drive UK economic growth. It will not surprise the noble Lord or, indeed, the House that digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, will be one of the sectors right at the heart of the Government’s industrial strategy. As I have set out, we have a youth guarantee to deliver a record spend for young people. Ensuring they can take advantage of the opportunities of AI will be at the heart of making that work.
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)
My Lords, could the Minister actually answer the Question, which is about the assessment of jobs that will be available? He has spoken about various things that are in flow, but could he give some indication as to how the Government see the various sectors of our society and the jobs that will be needed? There is always a feeling that we are waiting for some report, but there is no assessment of which sectors are in need of employees and workforce. Can the Minister indicate which sectors of society will be looked at for future employment?
Lord Katz (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord for his question. I am afraid I will repeat myself: a great deal of it will be delivered through the industrial strategy White Paper. We are looking at the sectors that will lead to the future economic growth of this country—advanced manufacturing, clean energy, the creative industries, digital and technologies, defence, financial services, life sciences, and professional business services. As we heard from the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, on the previous Question, financial services will be a key part of our economic growth. These are the areas in which the jobs will come. It is our role as a Government to make sure everybody can access quality jobs in these economic sectors and that is what we will do.