Coinciding with the UK’s general election, the latest analysis from the PLG shows photonics businesses employ staff in over half the UK’s 650 Westminster parliamentary constituencies.
There are over 20 constituencieswith more than 500 people directly employed in photonics and over 100 MP’s will represent areas employing over 100 people in optics and photonics. That is without counting the 1000’s of skilled technicians deploying fibre optic networks in the UK or any of the UK’s internationally renowed University based photonics research groups.
Consituencies with the highest photonics employment include:-
- Aldershot
- Ashton-under-Lyne
- Barrow and Furness
- Basildon and Billericay
- Belfast East
- Birmingham, Ladywood
- Cambridge
- Cardiff South and Penarth
- Charnwood
- Chelmsford
- Chesham and Amersham
- Christchurch
- Derby South
- Doncaster Central
- Eastleigh
- Edinburgh North and Leith
- Edinburgh South West
- Filton and Bradley Stoke
- Gillingham and Rainham
- Glasgow South West
- Glenrothes
- Horsham
- Mid Dorset and North Poole
- Newport West
- Reading West
- Rochester and Strood
- Rochford and Southend East
- South East Cambridgeshire
- South Northamptonshire
- Stretford and Urmston
- Stroud
- Telford
- The Cotswolds
- Torbay
- Vale of Clwyd
- Wantage
- Yeovil
- York Outer