§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will identify the sites and locations where foreign direct investment has created 300 or more jobs from 1984 onwards; and if he will provide a regional assessment of the total employment created by such investment as at 1 January.
§ Mr. EggarI regret that information in the detail requested by the hon. Member is available only at disproportionate cost.
363WHowever, from 1984–85 to 1993–94, the latest year for which complete figures are available, 154 projects expected to create 300 or more new jobs were notified to my Department's Investment in Britain Bureau. These were expected to create nearly 106,000 new jobs, the regional breakdown of which was expected to he as follows:
Region Number of new jobs North East 9,235 North West 5,747 Yorkshire/Humberside 6,275 West Midlands 14,941 South West 5,123 East Midlands 6,966 South East 16,950 Northern Ireland 7,106 Scotland 22,517 Wales 10,809 Total 105,669 In addition, a total of 5,281 jobs were expected to be safeguarded.
These figures are based on information provided to the Invest in Britain Bureau by companies themselves at the time of the announcement of the decision to invest. There is no requirement to notify the Department, so the figures include only those projects where the Invest in Britain Bureau and its regional partners were involved or which have come to their notice. They take no account of subsequent developments.