(Lab): I welcome
the further endorsement of Heathrow’s expansion. As the Minister
will know, the Government keep saying it quietly, so I hope it
will happen. But my question really relates to the wider
aerospace industry. It is an incredibly important part of British
industry, with very advanced technology—the second most advanced
in the world, and still the second or third largest in the world
generally. What troubles me, and what troubles me about other
industries such as the car industry, is that increasingly parts
are exported and re-exported. I wonder how much thought in this
Green Paper is going to be given to the complexity of
arrangements not just with Europe—but obviously with Europe at
the moment—in terms of exports and re-exports in order to produce
a finished product.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department
for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord Prior of
Brampton) (Con): The noble Lord is referring, I think,
to the integration of supply chains, which have now become very
global. Certainly, that is particularly true in areas such as
satellite technology. Having easy ways of trading with other
countries with non-tariff barriers is critical to that. Space
technology is exactly the kind of industry that the UK should be
fully a part of. It is interesting—you look around the world, and
the USA is clearly leading in many of these areas, but if you
look at other countries you often find that our technology is
very strong. That is not to be complacent. Look at Israel,
Switzerland, or Singapore—and look at Ireland, which has done a
fantastic job in attracting many of the world’s best companies.
If they can do it in southern Ireland, why can we not do it in
Northern Ireland, or in the north-east, or the north-west?
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