§ Mr. Rentonasked the Secretary of State for Industry, further to his reply of 22 June, Official Report, column 33, to the hon. Member for Mid-Sussex, in view of the statement of the Council of the European Communities—Official Journal, 17 June C1 47—that "the Community regional policy in particular, which relies on aid from the ERDF, has helped create or maintain during the period in which the latter was in operation (1975–1979), 339,317 jobs for the Community as a whole, including 99,767 in the United Kingdom", what is the basis of his Department's view that European regional development fund grants are not linked directly to job numbers and that no overall records of such jobs are maintained.
§ Mr. MacGregorI shall reply to my hon. Friend as soon as possible.