Lord Razzall
Main Page: Lord Razzall (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord on being so prescient. As he identified, the Government believe that we need to reduce our reliance on one or a small number of sectors, particularly the financial sector. The most important element will be to foster and encourage technology, especially high-tech manufacturing, an area in which I know the noble Lord takes a special interest. That is why we commissioned the Dyson report, which identified five key challenges for government, including the education of scientists, engineers and technicians, exploiting knowledge better and financing and supporting high-tech businesses, which the Government are examining closely. No one suggests that this is going to be easy. We have already announced a number of reforms to simplify business taxes and to reduce red tape, which are critical to encouraging and helping business.
Lord Razzall
My Lords, does the Minister accept that when the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson—whom I understand we now have to refer to as the third man—held office before the election, he produced a huge number of initiatives aimed at many of the things to which the Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, directs itself? Would he think it helpful if the Government could quite soon indicate which of those initiatives they propose to cancel or retain?
Lord De Mauley
My noble friend is quite right. On 17 May, the Government announced that a separate review process is under way to examine spending commitments made since 1 January. It includes some of the projects to which my noble friend referred. Where projects are good value for money and consistent with the Government’s priorities, they will go ahead. Where they are not, it would be irresponsible to waste money on them. The Treasury has been asked to fast-track a decision to give clarity as soon as possible to the companies and the work on which they are focusing. A decision is expected soon.