§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Secretary of State for Industry what were the number of outstanding applications to the Department of Industry made by companies since 1st March 1974 for financial aid, the number of companies whose applications have been rejected and the number whose applications have been accepted.
§ Mr. Gregor MackenzieThe information requested for the period 1st March 1974 to 31st December 1974 is as follows:
Industry Act 1972
Part I. 27,847 applications were received for regional development grants. 26,353 applications were cleared. I regret that separate information is not available on how many of the applications cleared were rejected.Part II. Section 7. 1,222 applications were received for selective financial assistance. 793 offers of assistance were made and 100 applications were rejected.Section 8. 19 requests for assistance were received. Three offers were made and three requests rejected. These statistics, exclude assistance made available under the Wool Textile Industry Scheme and the North Sea Credit Scheme details of which were announced to the House on 19th July 1973 and 6th November 1973 respectively.Part III. 240 applications were received for grants for the construction of ships and mobile offshore installations. Eight applications were rejected and 249 payments were made against applications accepted.