HC Deb 12 November 1975 vol 899 cc1512-3
8. Mr. Crawford

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many meetings the Board of the Scottish Development Agency will hold during any given year.

Mr. William Ross

This will be for the Agency itself to determine.

Mr. Crawford

Will the right hon. Gentleman direct the attention of the SDA Board to Chrysler and inform it that the SNP wishes totally to dissociate itself from the views of the Conservative Party on this matter as enunciated in the House yesterday by the hon. Member for Mid-Oxon (Mr. Hurd), who said that no help should be given to Chrysler? Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that one of the best ways to assist Chrysler in Scotland is to inject into the company two or three days' revenue from Scottish oil, worth £20 million, to enable it to introduce a new model at Linwood to safeguard jobs? The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that the SNP has discussed this subject with Chrysler shop stewards.

Mr. Ross

I hope that the hon. Gentleman is not his party's industrial adviser. The SDA is the subject of the Question. I think that the hon. Gentleman knows that the Bill is to receive its Royal Assent this week. The hon. Gentleman supported the Conservative Party when we were discussing proposals by the House of Lords and that fact may have denied us the right to move in certain cases. I had hoped that the hon. Gentleman would dissociate himself from the statement made yesterday by his hon. Friend, which was rather narrow, mean and nasty. I have nothing to add to what the Prime Minister said yesterday on the subject of Chrysler.

Dr. M. S. Miller

On the question of the work of the SDA, will my right hon Friend ensure that, notwithstanding that the average weekly wage in Scotland has exceeded the average weekly wage in the United Kingdom as a whole, the work of the Agency will proceed as he and the Government side of the House have planned and produce even more prosperity for Scotland?

Mr. Ross

That is our intention. We think that the Agency will fill a gap and provide help to produce more jobs and modernise Scottish industry. We have serious problems. They may not all be tackled by the SDA, but there is no doubt that the Agency will be a valuable asset, and I very much regret that the actions of the Conservative Party prevented us from putting the measure on the statute book some time ago.

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

What matters to the SDA is the money that it has to spend. Now that the Bill is about to pass into law, will the right hon. Gentleman tell us what the budget of the Agency will be in the first year? Can he also say how much of this budget will be additional to what would have been spent anyway by his Department, by the Department of Industry and by local authorities in the normal course of carrying out their functions?

Mr. Ross

Many of these things might have been relevant to the Bill. Details of the resources to be made available next year will be made known in the usual way through the public expenditure White Paper.