§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether Government North East had failed to spend any allocations of European support under Objective 2 as at 31 December 2003; whether any fine was imposed; and what the profile of spending was for the 2004 calendar year. [185589]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe Objective 2 spending targets for 2003 were met therefore no funds were lost. The ERDF element of Objective 2 is set to achieve its 2004 spend target of £153.42 million. While progress against the ESF spend target of £33.9 million has been slow, measures have been implemented to accelerate spending in the remainder of the year.