§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will analyse the £18.3 million credited from the European 401W Regional Development Fund to the Votes of various Departments of Government, showing how much finance was credited to each Department, and an account of the regional development provision.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettFor technical reasons, the procedure described in my reply to the hon. Member of 16th June —[Vol. 933, c. 249]—was not fully operational in 1976–77. The Scottish and Welsh Offices surrendered their European Regional Development Fund receipts for that year to the Consolidated Fund as extra receipts. This made no practical difference to the level of funds available to those Departments.
Current practice is that described in my earlier reply.
The £18.3 million that I referred to was distributed as follows:
ENGLAND Department of Industry £ Regional Development Grants 8,161,237 Selective Assistance to Industry in Assisted Areas 1,369,794 Advance Factories 1,805,429 WALES Welsh Office Selective Assistance to Industry in Assisted Areas 363,565 Advance Factories 1,451,100 SCOTLAND Scottish Office Advance Factories 837,937 NORTHERN IRELAND Industrial Schemes 3,766,349 Advance Factories/Industrial Estates 530,958 Total 18,286,369