§ 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. Hattersley, pursuant to his reply—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 1st November 1974, Vol. 880, c. 21], gave the following information:
Grants from European Coal and Steel Community funds, including grants for research into safety at work, the reduction of pollution and the general improvement of the working environment:
(a) Coal industry
239WPayments of £522,750 were received from ECSC funds in the period 1st January 1973 to 30th June 1974 and further payments of £125,300 have been received since 30th June. These form part of a provisional total of £2,605,000 of research grants which have been contracted for by the National Coal Board.In addition, provisional claims have recently been submitted to ECSC for totals of some £6 million and £4.3 million towards rehabilitation payments in respect of men made redundant in the coal industry in 1973 and 1974 respectively.(b) Steel industry
Payments amounting to £45,000 were made from ECSC funds to the steel industry in the period 1st January 1973 to 30th June 1974. A further £100,000 has been received since 30th June. These payments form part of the ECSC's technical research programmes on steel making from which the United Kingdom steel industry expects to receive about £900,000 over the period 1973–1979.In addition, the ECSC has set aside £1.476 million towards the retraining and resettlement of redundant steel workers but no payments have yet been made.