§ Mr. ClayTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to the reply by the hon. Member for Grantham (Mr. Hogg) to the hon. Member for Sunderland, North on 2 March,Official Report, column 345, what legal basis in the example given the European Commission has to approve or disapprove the sale of land other than the shipbuilding site where closure aid has been allowed.
§ Mr. Douglas Hogg[holding answer 14 March 1990]: The wider remedial package for Sunderland was approved under the Commission of the European Communities' sixth directive on aid to shipbuilding and under articles 92–93 EEC. It is under these instruments that the Commission may reach a view on the use of land for shipbuilding in Sunderland outside the immediate confines of the former shipbuilding site.