§ Helen JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement about the membership of the Independent Assessment Panel for the Partnership Fund. [105515]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonAn independent Assessment Panel of nine members is to recommend to Ministers which projects should receive funding in the first round of the £5 million Partnership Fund.
260WThe nine members of the Assessment Panel—three trade unionists, three industrialists and three independent experts—will report to Ministers who will then make the final decisions on which projects have been successful. The successful applicants for funding under the Partnership Fund will be announced in Spring 2000.
Appointments are for a period of one year renewable for up to four years from 20 December 1999. Members are unpaid although travel and subsistence expenses are available.
The members of the Assessment Panel are:
- Ms Yvonne Bennion, Policy Specialist at the Industrial Society
- Mr. David Coats, Head of Economic and Social Affairs Department at the TUC
- Mr. Bill Connor, General Secretary of USDAW
- Mr. Willy Coupar (Chairman of the Panel), Director of the IPA
- Mrs. Lesley James, formerly HR Director of Tesco plc.
- Mr. Mike Kinski, Group Chief Executive of Stagecoach Holdings plc.
- Dr. Clive Morton OBE, Business Development Director at Anglian Water
- Mrs. Margaret Prosser OBE, Deputy General Secretary of TGWU
- Mr. John Stevens, Director of Development & Public Policy at the IPD
Brief biographies of the members of the Panel have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.