Tracey White is the Assistant Secretary of the Socttish Trades Union Congress and is involved in supporting arms conversion inititiatives in Scotland. She writes...
Despite major reductions in defence related jobs over the last 10 years, some 54,000 workers remain employed within the sector in Scotland. They work for companies engaged in shipbuilding and refit, avionics, and instrument and systems engineering activities. Scotland also hosts a number of Ministry of Defence bases.
Defence dependent jobs are significant both in number and in nature. They tend to be highly skilled and relatively well paid and are, therefore, of considerable importance to the local economies in which they are concentrated.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has, over an extended period of time, campaigned for the establishment of an effective strategy to promote defence diversification at UK, Scottish, local and company level. In the course of that campaign we have made representations to Government and to political parties, and have worked with Networks involving local authorities, economic development agencies, defence employers and workforce trade union representatives. The West of Scotland Defence and Aerospace Network has been the focus of that activity in the area previously covered by Strathclyde Regional Council.
The STUC welcomes the publication of the Government's Green Paper setting out proposals for a Defence Diversification Agency. But, we have some concerns about the focus of the Green Paper and the proposed remit for the Agency. The Green Paper authors appear to lay the same emphasis on the need to encourage the transfer of suitable civil technology into military programmes, as it does to promoting the widest possible exploitation of military technology in civil applications. And, whilst we recognise the important role which the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) could play in accelerating that technology transfer, we do not believe that an arm of the MOD is the most appropriate host for the Defence Diversification Agency.
Defence Diversification - A Wider Definition The STUC believes that the requirement for defence diversification arises from at least two sets of priorities:
Whilst the Green Paper is relatively strong in its proposals relating to the diffusion of defence technology into the wider economy, it is disappointingly weak on proposals for the achievement of the second of these priorities.
The process of supporting defence diversification activity is primarily an economic development matter, in which the Government's proposed Regional development Agencies and the future Scottish Parliament have a legitimate and pivotal interest. The STUC, therefore, believes that the regional dimension implicit in the proposed representation upon the DDA supervisory body requires considerable development. In developing a strategy to ensure that change is managed effectively, there is a role for Government and its agencies, and for business and trade unions, which extends well beyond the remit proposed for the DDA by the Ministry of Defence. As the Green Paper recognises, DERA does not have the expertise to take forward broader economic development activities. If defence diversification is to become a reality, defence dependent companies, no matter their size, should find the advice, support and assistance made available by Government both accessible and relevant to their requirements. It is important that all industrial stakeholders have a formal voice in the development of the activities of the Defence Diversification Agency.
NFPB's briefing on the Green Paper
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