§ Mr. Cyril Smithasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if he will make a statement about the procedures used by his Department in processing individual claims to the EEC Social Fund;
(2) how many individual applications from voluntary organisations were forwarded to the EEC Social Fund in each of the years 1973 and 1974.
§ Mr. John FraserThe Government make applications in respect of Government expenditure on training, resettlement, rehabilitation of disabled people and the integration of migrant workers into the social and working environment. Allocations for 1973 and 1974 were £23.9 million and £25.9 million respectively. Allocations for 1975 have yet to be made.
The Government expenditure concerned includes grants to individual firms and voluntary organisations. The Government do not pass on social fund receipts to such firms and organisations in addition to the Government grants they receive. The only applications made in 1973 and 1974 on behalf of individual bodies have been for several private companies in Northern Ireland where different training arrangements operate from the rest of the United Kingdom, and for three industrial training boards in respect of activities financed from levy income. No applications on behalf of voluntary organisations were submitted in 1973 or 1974.