While most of the talk around automation has tended to focus on the risks robots pose to a growing number of industry sectors, this group of MPs suggests that a failure to embrace technology is actually putting jobs, businesses and regional economies at risk.
The problem appears to be many-fold and in no small part due to the Government’s decision to cut support and its failure to encourage investment in automation.
According to Rachel Reeves, the committee chair, the danger for the UK economy is not that we have too many robots in the workplace but that we have far too few.
She argues that the government has failed to provide the leadership needed to help drive investment in automation and robot technologies and, as a result, the UK is falling behind its competitors.
In 2015, the UK had 10 robots for every million hours worked, compared with 131 in the US, 133 in Germany and 167 in Japan. By 2017, the UK represented just 0.6% of industrial robotics shipments.
Those figures are certainly disappointing but could be miss-leading. In the UK smaller businesses predominate and don’t tend to need the numbers of robots associated with the larger manufacturers that exist in Germany or the US.
However, that failure to invest is not just amongst manufacturers, other sectors are failing to embrace a technology that is set to revolutionise how they will operate and that is a concern.
Change is coming and Britain needs to embrace automation. That means investing in skills and training and supporting British businesses and universities to collaborate and innovate.
Automation has a critical part to play in the progressive economic development of our economy and society. People need to better understand how automation can help support and improve current jobs, and look beyond the current focus on the threat it is said to pose.
Opinion is divided. There are optimists and pessimists as to how automation will impact how we work. But one thing is for sure, change is coming and its scale and scope will be unprecedented.
