Mr. Ted Fletcherasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the cost of the Small Firms Advisory Bureaux as recommended by the Boulton Report; and how the cost compares with that of the present Industrial Liaison Scheme.
§ Mr. RidleyI am unable to add to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Marks) on 29th November, in which I said that no estimate of the cost of the proposed bureaux had yet been made. It is not yet possible, therefore, to compare the cost with that of the Industrial Liaison Centre Service. However, this Department's grant to this service for 1970–71 was £250,000. —[Vol. 827. c.10.]