HL Deb 31 March 1988 vol 495 cc906-8WA
Lord Hylton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What parts of the United Kingdom, apart from Northern Ireland, have been designated by the European Communities for special assistance from the social and regional funds or by other means including the common agricultural policy; and whether they can specify those areas by reference to administrative units of local government.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Lord Young of Graffham)

Priority status under the European Social Fund is directed principally at areas of industrial and sectoral restructuring and those with high levels of unemployment. With regard to the European Regional Development Fund, grants are available throughout the assisted areas and in some other parts of Great Britain. None of these has a special designation comparable with Northern Ireland. Agricultural support is available throughout the less favoured areas, which now made up more than 50 per cent. of the utilisable agricultural land in the United Kingdom. An agricultural development programme for the Scottish Islands has recently been agreed.

It is not possible to define the areas covered by the funds in terms of administrative units of local government, since they are in general based on other geographical units, that is, travel-to-work areas.