GMB chief calls for break-up of the DTI

The
new head of the GMB union is demanding the break-up of the Department of Trade
and Industry (DTI).

Kevin
Curran, general secretary of the GMB, said the change is needed to "save
British manufacturing".

Curran
wants the department to be replaced by two departments, each with its own
cabinet minister.

He
said one could handle the DTI’s current job as regulator, with a second
department to dealing with ‘innovation’, which would include a new strategy for
manufacturing.

The
Liberal Democrats have already called for the DTI to be abolished and its
workload distributed to other government agencies.

Dr
Vincent Cable, the Lib Dem shadow trade and industry minister, accused the DTI
of creating unnecessary bureaucracy and said it no longer had a place in modern
business.

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"The
DTI should be wound up because it doesn’t perform a function. It has no real
role anymore and only exists as a contact point for industry, without
delivering what [industry] actually wants, which is less regulation," he
said.

By Michael Millar