§ Mr. Martenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what is the total of financial grants received since 1st January 1973 from the European Community's funds for safety at work, reduction of pollution and the general improvement of the working environment;
(2) what was the total of financial grants received between 1st January 1973 and 30th June 1974 from the European Community's Social and Coal and Steel Community Funds.
§ Mr. HattersleyIn the time available it has not been possible to obtain all the information requested by the hon. Member. Information about grants from the Social Fund is given below. The rest of the information is being collated and will be circulated in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
Grants from the European Community's Social Fund.
A payment of £1.9 million was received from the Commission in the period 1st January 1973 to 30th June 1974 in respect of allocations from the Social Fund. A further payment of £11 million has been received since 30th June. This forms part of the allocation of £24 million to the United Kingdom towards eligible expenditure in 1973.
§ Mr. Martenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the total of grants made by the European Community to victims of disasters in industry in Great Britain since 1st January 1973.
§ Mr. HattersleyAs far as I can ascertain in the time available a total of £11,719 was provided from Community funds in 1973 to victims of disasters in industry in the United Kingdom. In addition this year the Community has approved a grant of £21,300 to the victims of the Flixborough disaster.
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§ Mr. Martenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the total of grants made by the European Community to British agriculture since 1st January 1973.
§ Mr. BishopI have been asked to reply.
United Kingdom expenditure borne by the Guarantee Section of the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund on market regulation under the common agricultural policy between 1st January 1973 and 30th September 1974 was £136.2 million. This figure is made up of several elements, and includes the net cost of commodities bought into intervention and subsequently sold, the cost of incentives for private storage or denaturing, consumer subsidies on butter, export refunds on third country trade and import refunds in respect of intra-Community trade.
The Guidance Section of the fund is committed to pay £7.8 million in grants towards United Kingdom individual projects in the agriculture, horticulture, food and fishing industries under its 1973 programme. No decisions have yet been taken by the European Commission about the 1974 applications under this programme.
The United Kingdom expects also to benefit from Guidance Section contributions to schemes made in pursuance of various EEC directives and regulations.