§ Mr. Roperasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a list of the applications for grants from the European Social Fund which have been made by bodies in the United Kingdom, giving in each case the amount requested, the recommendation of the advisory committee on the social fund, and whether the body concerned is a "public authority" or an "entity governed by private law".
§ Mr. Dudley SmithThe United Kingdom Government have made two applications for assistance from the social fund in 1973. They relate to expenditure incurred by the Department of Employment, and by the Minister of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland. One application, totalling about £31 million, 233W is for half the estimated cost of providing vocational training for, and resettling, people in the assisted areas and for the cost of resettling the disabled throughout the United Kingdom. The advisory committee has recommended that about 80 per cent. of that part of the application relating to the assisted areas—for which the whole sum sought is about £23 million—should be placed with applications meriting first priority. The remaining 20 per cent. has been categorised as second priority. That part of the application relating to the disabled, and the second application, which is for half the estimated cost of retraining and resettling agricultural and textile workers, and amounts to £787,000, have yet to be considered by the advisory committee.