§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) if he will list the designated shipyards which are able to seek financial assistance by way of the European Community's seventh directive and the shipbuilding intervention fund;
(2) if he will list the United Kingdom shipyards which have received financial assistance by way of the European Community's seventh directive on the shipbuilding intervention fund since 1 January 1993; what were the amounts paid to each yard; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. EggarTo be eligible for shipbuilding intervention fund assistance, a yard must be a merchant shipbuilder and have built merchant ships of 100 gross registered tonnes or more during the three years prior to the date of an application. There is no designated list of eligible yards, but certain yards designated as warship yards and sold by British Shipbuilders prior to 1987 are excluded from assistance. DTI Ministers obtained the European Commission's approval exceptionally for intervention funding for the Swan Hunter warship yard for the construction of commercial vessels.
180WTo provide the names of those shipyards which have received assistance, and the amounts paid to them, would breach the Department's commercial confidentiality rules.
Shipbuilding intervention fund payments to United Kingdom merchant shipyards since 1 January 1993 amount to nearly £22 million.