§ Mr. Fallonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has of the total amount of aid in grants and loans provided to (a) the British Steel Corporation and (b) British Shipbuilders in respect of their operations in the northern region (i) since 1979 and (ii) since 1983.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison[pursuant to his reply, 3 June 1986, c. 406]: The following is the information for British Shipbuilders in the northern region and the British Steel Corporation in the north-east. Information from British Steel Corporation in Cumbria is not readily available.
1979–80 to 1984–85 1983–84 to 1984–85 £ million £ million British Shipbuilders Regional Development Grants 9 2.5 Intervention Fund* 123 20 Public Dividend Capital† 374 160 British Steel Corporation Regional Development Grants 25 11 Subscription of Capital† 455 112 * To May 1986. † Estimated: public dividend capital for British Shipbuilders (provided under section 16 of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Regulations 1977) and capital subscribed for the British Steel Corporation (under section 18 of the Iron and Steel Acts 1975 and 1982) is general finance, for instance, for capital investment and operating losses in subsidiary companies. It is not, in the main, allocated for specific purposes or areas. The British Shipbuilders public dividend capital estimate does, however, include £58 million towards the construction of the submarine facilities project at Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd. at Barrow. Other funding for working capital and to meet redundancy and closure costs has been provided by British Shipbuilders and British Steel Corporation in the northern region, but is not recorded on a regional basis.