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Mr. Ian Taylor: I welcome the announcement by Microsoft, which has been encouraged to look positively at the United Kingdom. Bill Gates had dinner with me twice, and the new Administration have followed up that interest. May I ask the Minister to urge her ministerial colleagues to give the same importance to the new industries that she and the Minister of State have given to them? Sometimes it seems that Labour is concerned only with the old industries. The telecommunications industry employs more people than the motor car industry in this country. The music industry makes a larger contribution to this country's GDP than the water industry. This is a transformation in the way in which industry will affect the future of this country. It is important that everybody in the Government understands this, as she has done.
Mrs. Roche: I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that important point. We need a balanced approach, and all my colleagues have the same message. It is interesting that very many of the traditional industries have become reliant on new technology because they are new technology-driven. I always quote the example of a wonderful third-generation, family-run bakery in my constituency. It is very popular, and everything is baked fresh every day. But if one goes behind the scenes, one sees that it is driven by new technology. That is a perfect marriage of a traditional industry with new technology.
Considerable development has been evident in infrastructure provision. In addition to the major investment from BT, Mercury and others, more than
9 million homes now have cable running past their doors. Construction has accelerated, currently adding at least 2.4 million homes every year. This will bring broad band services to some 19 million homes. That is a considerable achievement.
Further coverage is being developed through the use of the radio spectrum. More than half a dozen companies have now been licensed to provide services by means of radio fixed access. Two of those were specifically required to cover rural areas--those where broad band cable franchising typically has not reached. The Government are now also considering possible uses of other parts of the spectrum for broad band applications, further extending the possibilities to bring broad band connectivity within reach of the whole of the UK population.
Mr. Ian Bruce:
The Minister may be coming to the end of her speech. In a debate on the information society, nobody has yet mentioned the Post Office. Is she aware of a report produced by the Communication Workers Union, of which I believe the hon. Member for Hull, West and Hessle (Mr. Johnson) was the general secretary? It proposed to the previous Government that they should free up the Post Office so that it could invest in new technology to enable it to compete in the worldwide information revolution. Have the Government any plans quickly to free up the Post Office in such a way?
Mrs. Roche:
The Minister for social partnership, my hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Mr. McCartney), who has responsibility for the Post Office, made a recent announcement on that subject. We are certainly keen that the Post Office should be able to compete in all the new opportunities that are increasingly becoming available.
The United Kingdom digital infrastructure, whether cable, radio, satellite or other network, is truly developing into a seamless network of networks and technologies. That is the reality of the information super-highway. It is certainly not a monolithic, single-technology, fixed-link network. That emphasises the importance of encouraging and protecting investment in all forms of alternative infrastructure. Of course, the regulatory regime must continue to underpin seamless interconnection and dynamic competition at the network level, but, as those component networks and connections near completion, it must also increasingly turn its attention to supporting affordable access for all in the new range of services offered over those networks. That is extremely important as we get convergence. Inevitably, politicians of whatever political party and nation state tend to follow behind the emerging technology. We ought to keep that very much in mind.
We have rightly heard much about competitiveness. The new technologies have the almost unique potential of being able to improve the competitiveness of practically every sector of business. They cannot be ignored and any business that does not take on that message risks seeing its business usurped by those that do. In this age of the global economy, it is just as likely that the competitor is in the far east or north America as in the next town or across the channel. Certainly, the message that we need to send to all businesses in the United Kingdom,
both large and small, is that there are global markets and that it is vital that we make our country and our businesses as competitive as possible.
Mr. Fallon:
If it is true that all businesses must be as competitive as possible, why is the other side of the Department of Trade and Industry--I think that he is now called the Minister of State for social partnership--proposing to impose the minimum wage and the social chapter, which will add costs to British business?
Mrs. Roche:
I entirely reject that argument. What is interesting is the number of businesses that support the minimum wage because they believe that it will be competitive. As recently as a few months ago, the Federation of Small Businesses backed a sensibly negotiated minimum wage. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman should spend a little more time with the business community.
The battle for competitiveness is never won. We need more investment in indigenous companies from inward investors--in small companies as well as large ones, in research as well as product development and in our university centres of excellence as well as our companies. We need to get better at exploiting our well-deserved reputation for innovation. More of those bright ideas need to be turned into winning products in companies based here in the United Kingdom and not overseas. More of our small, technology-based companies need to be helped to become the stars of tomorrow. Indeed, in the words of the recent Confederation of British Industry report, the "Tech-Stars" of tomorrow.
To do that, we need to build a relationship between the science and industry base and between Government and businesses both large and small. As the Minister with responsibility for small firms, I want in particular to underline the vital role that smaller businesses play in a successful enterprise economy.
The Government are firmly committed to providing the right conditions for the sector to compete and grow. That is why it is so important for the message about the opportunities and benefits of the new technologies to reach out to those many small companies and why the Department's information society initiative programme for business is focused on them. We are determined that it should succeed in communicating the message effectively. We will do that with the help of business partners and local support centres.
The hon. Member for Sevenoaks asked me about that programme. It will certainly continue; indeed, we will enhance it. In the autumn, I will make an announcement about the direction of business links, and how we want that programme to grow and prosper.
We want to help small businesses even further, and I want to highlight the role of the enterprise zone on the Internet. In opposition, we did a great deal of work on that project, and I am especially pleased to be advancing it personally. It will be a one-stop Internet site designed to help small and medium-sized companies to obtain quick and easy access to a wide range of business information available on the world wide web.
That is important, because any owner-manager knows that there is a great deal of helpful information out there, but that it is sometimes difficult to have enough hours in
the day to deal with it. That is one way in which we can make the information revolution work for our small businesses.
A number of hon. Members have said that the Government should set an example, using information and communication technologies to increase accessibility, efficiency and effectiveness. I absolutely agree. Government, and the public sector more widely, are in a position to have a major impact on the environment of acceptance leading to a virtuous circle of even greater use.
The new technologies offer opportunities for opening up government in education, health, public administration and elsewhere and improving the delivery of public services. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has worked closely with motor manufacturers to establish electronic links that allow motor dealers to register and license vehicles at their own premises, avoiding the need for journeys to the vehicle registration office. The DVLA has also been piloting a project to enable companies with large vehicle fleets to relicense their vehicles in bulk by electronic data interchange.
Insurance companies are also benefiting from an electronic inquiries service that has help them to speed up the processing of motor claims. Those are good examples of the public and private sectors working together to secure not only value for money--which is extremely important, as we should be wise spenders of the public purse--but a better service for consumers.
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