§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he will make a statement on the performance to date of his Department's Overseas Projects Group in assisting the United Kingdom construction industry; how many contracts it has drawn to the notice of United Kingdom firms over the last 12 months; how many of them have subsequently been: (a) tendered for and (b) won; what has been the expenditure over the last 12 months of the Overseas Projects Fund; and what proportion of that expenditure has been reclaimed from successful tenderers.
§ Mr. MeacherIn the 12 months ended 30th June 1976, my Department's Overseas Projects Group assisted construction exporters in various forms in pursuing 90 projects in which construction was a prominent feature. Most of these projects were of a long-term nature and only 12 have reached the stage of contract award; none of these was won by British firms. In the same 12 months, assistance totalling £230,000 was paid from the Overseas Projects Fund to British firms pursuing 10 of these projects. In two of these cases, British firms have not been successful, but 8 cases have not yet reached the stage of contract award. No repayments have, therefore, been made so far.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for Trade what was the value, for each of the last five years, of: (a) the overseas work covered by 371W the construction works policy of the ECGD, (b) to cover against the potential loss on foreign exchange due to overseas Governments blocking or delaying sterling transfers and (c) the cover against cost escalation; what premium income, if any, was received for each of these risks; and what insurance pay-outs have been made.
§ Mr. Meacher(a) The total business insured by ECGD under its constructional works policies for 1974–75 and the preceding 3 financial years is as follows. Final figures for 1975–76 are not yet available.
£ million 1971–72 … … … 44.989 1972–73 … … … 55.997 1973–74 … … … 42.913 1974–75 … … … 18.732 (b) Theoretically, losses could have occurred to these full amounts if overseas Governments had blocked or delayed the payments due; but no such situation arose, and hence no pay-out was required from ECGD on such grounds. ECGD does not charge separate premia for insurance under its guarantees for each of the individual insured risks. Premium received by ECGD in respect of business insured under its constructional works policies in each of the last four financial years is as follows:
£ million 1971–72 … … … 0.466 1972–73 … … … 0.276 1973–74 … … … 0.606 1974–75 … … … 0.715 (c) None of the guarantees under ECGD's Cost Escalation Scheme has been in respect of overseas constructional works contracts.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for Trade what is the value of the insurance cover being provided by ECGD to support performance bonds for overseas construction work; and whether any expenditure has so far had to be met by ECGD in meeting a bond, following the failure of a United Kingdom contractor.
§ Mr. MeacherSince the bond support scheme was introduced in February 1975, ECGD has provided facilities producing bonds to a total value of £49.5 million in connection with contracts worth £254.2 million. Of these, constructional works projects account for bond facilities to372W a value of £13.2 million in connection with contracts worth £64 million.
No bond supported by ECGD has been called, either as a result of the failure of a United Kingdom contractor or for any other reason, and no expenditure has been incurred by ECGD in this respect.