HC Deb 19 November 1976 vol 919 cc765-6W
Mr. James White

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he proposes to continue his grant to the Scottish Council (Development and Industry) now that the Scottish Development Agency has been established; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Millan

In accordance with the undertakings which I gave during the passage of the Scottish Development Agency Bill, the arrangements for the grant in aid to the Scottish Council (Development and Industry) for the purposes of industrial promotion will continue unaltered until the end of the current financial year, when they would, in any case, have been due for review. I also undertook that the arrangements for future years would be the subject of consultation between the Agency, when established, and the Council.

I am happy now to announce that the two bodies have reached complete agree- ment upon these arrangements. The Agency will assume the responsibility hitherto exercised by the Council for coordinating Scottish industrial promotional efforts. The Agency proposes to convene a new consultative body which will include the interests at present represented on the Scottish Council's Consultative Committee, which will be disbanded, and the Agency will shortly be initiating discussions with the parties concerned.

The Scottish Council will continue its own promotional campaigns and has undertaken to agree and co-ordinate its programmes with the Agency. To reinforce this section of the Council's overseas activity, and to maintain the momentum which has been so effectively generated in the past three years, the Agency will pay to the Council an annual grant of £100,000 from 1st April 1977 for a period of two years. During this period the Agency will build up its own capacity in the promotional field and will work out with the Council what arrangements might be appropriate for 1979 onwards.

I would like to take this opportunity of paying a warm tribute to the invaluable work of the Scottish Council in this field, over many years, but particularly over the three-year period of current grant in aid; and I look forward to the important continuing contribution it will be making under the new arrangements.