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Mr. Ian Bruce: I congratulate the Government on the excellence of British industry in that sphere. The hon. Gentleman will know that, before the general election, the present Prime Minister made a deal with BT to wire up all the schools in the land. In return, the Government would give BT the opportunity to broadcast television and films down its own telephone network. Will the Minister tell the House how that deal is being taken forward and whether he feels that it might be undermining all the investment that others have been making in our networks?
Mr. Battle: There was no deal in the terms described by the hon. Gentleman. Discussions on ensuring that schools are wired up are taking place with British Telecom and others, together with Oftel. The hon. Gentleman will have read about that in the press. Telecommunications are not new. What was going on during the past 18 years? Unlike the former Government, we do not claim credit for every business investment in Britain, as if we politicians had built it. We congratulate industry on its developments, innovation and potential.
I do not want the picture of strength to be compressed into complacency. We are talking about the fastest- growing sector of global business in which there isfierce international competition. The competitive edge of telecommunications and information technology companies can be lost overnight. Product lead times can be measured in months. I am told that a software idea has
a half-life of about six months. We have to work very hard just to hold positions in the incredibly fast-moving world markets.
Significant progress has already been made in the development of the network of networks to make up the United Kingdom's information super-highway. British Telecom has already invested more than £28 billion in infrastructure and equipment since 1984. The cable companies have invested £7 billion since 1991, with about another £6 billion scheduled to complete the existing franchise bill. Despite that investment in programmes brought forward by a wide variety of operators, I am sure that the hon. Member for South Dorset (Mr. Bruce) agrees that there is still some way to go before the opportunities to use the infrastructure are available to all members of society on an equal footing. Our aim is to ensure a truly national network of networks to benefit the whole of society.
Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome):
The training and education provided in schools are vital to give people opportunities to use new possibilities in IT. Does the Minister appreciate that many schools constantly struggle to acquire the necessary hardware and software and to maintain it, which is also important? There is often pump-priming finance, but then nothing to replace the equipment a few years down the track. Do the Government have firm plans to provide the additional capital or revenue support for education authorities to enable schools to be properly equipped for the new age?
Mr. Battle:
If I get a chance between the welcome interventions, I shall spell out later some details about the national grid for learning, when I shall respond fully to that question.
At this stage, I should like to mention the IT for all initiatives that already exist. Some 150 private, public and voluntary sector organisations are working together, including the education sector, to provide opportunities for all citizens--yes, youngsters as well--to get to grips with new technologies. We must ensure that the potential impact of the technological revolution on competitiveness is built through at business level. Without the next generation--the children and the youngsters--understanding it, we shall miss out again. I shall spell out later how we intend to take that forward.
Businesses can improve their timing, quality control, choice and ability and can erode restrictions on time and place by using technology to improve their business advantage. I am concerned about the need to get technology not just into schools but into businesses, particularly small businesses.
I remember visiting a company in my constituency that made automotive parts. When I visited the workshop, the guy could not even deliver a proper bill. When I asked why he did not put the information on computer, he said, "Because a computer is for an office. I work with oily hands and would contaminate a computer if it was in the workshop." A computer has a plastic casing. As long as oil does not get on the brains of the computer, it is possible to put one in a workshop to deliver invoices.
The workshop has now done that and has improved its stock control and invoicing. The man then asked, "Why do I need to send out paper? I could do the transactions and the orders on the Internet." That is a low-level
technological approach, but many businesses are not even at that primary stage. We have to work on that agenda to ensure that businesses and commerce take advantage of new technology now. That is part of the work of the Department of Trade and Industry, with the benchmarking study, the spectrum strategy consultants and the information society initiative business information line. Information on all that is available in the Library.
Those initiatives need to be promoted more widely because there is a low uptake of new technology by small and medium-sized enterprises. We must address that gap and ensure that they use the opportunities to be competitive. Up to 50 per cent. of all UK employment will be in companies of fewer than 50 employees. It is vital that they use new technology and computing to lift them up a step change, to maintain competitive advantage, to increase their contribution to the economy and to survive in the future. The business opportunities are sometimes not spelt out and realised by business. We shall continue and enhance the Department's programme for business, which is part of the information society initiative.
The university for industry and the Internet enterprise zones are other means of bringing the education sector and the business sector together. We are all aware of what is known as the millennium time bomb. As we tick towards the next century, two digits could wipe out a century, with computers being unable to cope with the change to the next century. People may have to get ahead in reprogramming their computers, buying in the advice now, because the closer we get to the end of the century, the more expensive such advice will become. The problem must be taken seriously. I hope that the efforts of the Department, supplemented by efforts in the business arena, will ensure that the problem is addressed and people are not caught out and do not have to pay a heavy price.
We must ensure that excellence in the basic science is translated into business success. The UK has a world-renowned science and engineering base, but that expertise is often not converted through business into products and services competing in a global market. It is vital for businesses to look ahead to the medium and longer term and explore the potential contribution that developments in science, technology and engineering can make to their success. That is why the foresight programme must be further promoted. The importance of IT and telecommunications must be stressed in that programme.
Information technology will provide new opportunities and challenges, and will offer changes to the way in which business is done to develop the competitive edge. Even in the research sector of the work of the Office of Science and Technology, we must not only promote existing technologies, but get ahead of new developments. We shall also work positively in the European Union to take forward international collaborations. I mentioned the Equality project in Leeds, which is part of a European Union project involving the Netherlands and Newcastle. International collaboration is an important means of taking things forward. Local authorities are also important. They have carried out some of the most imaginative developments.
The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) asked an important question, to which I shall now respond more fully. The success of the information technology,
electronics and communications sector depends heavily on people having proper skills that they can use later. Training people, increasing understanding of technology and using it to maximise competitive advantage are crucial. That is why the Government will pay a full role in providing an education system for all which equips people with the confidence and basic skills necessary for work in tomorrow's industries. That is why two of our new and innovative proposals--the national grid for learning and the university for industry--are such vital initiatives.
Those proposals are crucial in the drive to create an environment and a culture in which employers play their part, together with employees, in encouraging continual learning, relearning, training and adapting to the challenges of rapidly changing technologies and markets. Education is the key to building the information society and the global information networks of the future. That is why we have made literacy in information and communication technologies a central plank in our manifesto commitments. It is vital for children to be literate in information and communication technologies. They need the skills that are necessary to use the new tools in their work in the new millennium.
Mr. David Heath:
Welcome though those projects are, in the primary sector there are still an awful lot of schools that struggle desperately to provide equality of opportunity for children at the earliest ages. Jumble sales are not a proper way of financing IT facilities in primary schools. I am asking that we ensure that it should not be just those children whose parents are sufficiently well off to provide a computer at home who benefit from the advantages and opportunities that the Government are, quite properly, promoting later in their school career.
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