HC Deb 10 April 1974 vol 872 cc424-5
22. Mr. Gordon Wilson

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will prepare a national economic plan with proposals to indicate how Scotland's offshore oil resources can best be used for the expansion of industry and the improvement of the standard of life of all the people in Scotland.

Mr. William Ross

No, Sir. We have already announced our intention to ensure that Scotland and regions elsewhere in need of development derive maximum benefit from offshore oil and gas. I am determined that Scottish industry should receive a larger share of the market created by oil developments, and the announcement last week of the expansion of the Offshore Supplies Office and the transfer of its headquarters to Scotland is an immediate demonstration of this.

Mr. Wilson

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the economic situation of Scotland is difficult and severe and that, with an unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent. compared with 1 per cent. in Norway, the arrangements he has in mind for ad hoc benefit from oil are insufficient?

Mr. Ross

As I have not announced any arrangements, I do not see how they can be insufficient. The hon. Gentleman should appreciate exactly what is being done in Scotland, and how much money is being spent there—and we have not got a drop of oil yet. One of the first things we did concerned the announcement which had already been made about REP. We said that it would be continued, and that means £40 million per year to Scotland. It is time the SNP let people in Scotland know exactly how much we are doing.

Mr. Dalyell

What will the Government do to make sure that we take advantage of the richest oilfield in the Western European land mass, namely, that off Cornwall? Is not talk of Scottish oil nonsense, and against the long-term deep self-interest of Scotland in the 1980s?

Mr. Ross

I have always been con-concerned to prevent the economic fragmentation of the strength of Britain. [Interruption.] Yes, and it is from the strength of Britain that many of the millions we are spending in Scotland come. The attitude of hon. Members belonging to the Scottish National Party is so parochial that it is unworthy of the Scotland I know.

Mr. Bruce-Gardyne

Will the right hon. Gentleman continue to resist pressure from the SNP to publish any more national economic plans, in view of the humiliating fiasco which ensued from the last one he tried? Will he examine carefully the arrangements for supplying offshore oil rigs, as his hon. Friend the junior Minister in the Department of Energy is apparently unaware that in the Gulf of Texas and other American offshore areas only American ships are allowed to supply, and no such arrangement exists on this side of the Atlantic?

Mr. Ross

I seldom take the hon. Gentleman's advice on my future actions, but there may be some validity in his last point.