HC Deb 02 July 1991 vol 194 cc96-7W
Sir Gerard Vaughan

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much public funding was originally earmarked for the Link initiative when it was launched in 1986; how much was provided in the estimates for that and for each succeeding financial year; on which votes these estimates have been carried; how much has been disbursed on each such vote in each such financial year; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Leigh

I have been asked to reply to this question on Link funding and expenditure, although the question as put cannot be answered without disproportionate cost. When the Link initiative was announced on 10 December 1986 by the then Prime Minister, the Government contribution was to be £210 million spread over five years. This assumed a roughly linear build-up to a steady-state Government funding target of £85 million per annum; the agreed planning figures for Departments are shown in table A. The first five programmes were announced in February 1988, and currently there are 28 programmes in existence; the Government commitment to them is £175 million, and table B shows the funding commitment of individual Departments to programmes.

Table C shows expenditure to date, which significantly lags work under way because participants are very slow in submitting claims for reimbursement. The total spent will be approximately double the Government expenditure by virtue of industry's own expenditure. There are now over 150 projects under way and nearly 100 more approved, at a total value of around £150 million. After a slow start, Link is now making good progress.

Table A
Link
Department targets 1992–93 £ million 1988–89 to 1992–93 £ million
DTI 25 62.5
DES (Research Councils) 25 62.5
MoD 15 36.0
DEn 5 12.0
MAFF 4 9.5
DoE 2 5.0
DTp 1 2.5
DH 1 2.5
SO, WO, NIO 7 17.0

Table C
Link £000
Departmental spend (FY) 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 Total
DTI 50.6 1,767.1 3,543.5 5,361.2
DES (research councils) 117.8 783.5 3,186.9 4,088.2
MoD — — — 18.1
DEn — — — —
MAFF — 10.0 166.6 176.6
DoE 30–0 43.8 6.5 80.3
DTp — — 24.1 24.1
DH — — — —
SO, WO, NIO — — 0.2 0.2
(SOAFD)
TOTAL 198.4 2,604.4 6,927.8 9,748.7