§ 1. Mr. Gordon Campbellasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will take steps to improve the procedures for dealing with applications for investment grants.
§ The Minister of State, Board of Trade (Mr. Edmund Dell)If the hon. Member will let me know what aspect of the procedures he considers should be improved, I will, of course, consider this.
§ Mr. CampbellIs the Minister aware that the present system by which arbitrary questions of eligibility are decided by officials is a cause of delay and great uncertainty?
§ Mr. DellI do not think that there are serious problems of delay. The average time for processing applications is six weeks and, although this causes administrative work for firms, this is far outweighed, in my judgment, by the fact that they are now getting their cash payments in 12 months from expenditure.