HC Deb 23 February 1978 vol 944 cc789-90W
Mr. English

asked the Minister of Overseas Develpoment if she would publish a complete list of the Crown Agents' borrowings, other than from their principals, and loans, other than to their principals, from 1967 to 1974 inclusive.

Mrs. Hart

, pursuant to her reply [Official Report, 9th December 1977; Vol. 940, c. 847], gave the following information:

I regret a reply has taken more time than had at first been thought likely. I have shown my hon. Friend an example of the information which my Department has been able to compile, but as I explained to him it is not necessarily accurate.

Applications Offers to date Value of offers £m.
Ferrous Foundry Scheme
England and Wales 470 345 64.7
of which West Midlands 142 99 17.3
of which Walsall 17 13 2.5
Non-Ferrous Foundry Scheme
England and Wales 88 28 3.7
of which West Midlands 30 11 1.8
of which Walsall 4 2 0.3

Taking account of Scotland and Northern Ireland, the total value of offers to date is £72.5 million and £4.8 million under the ferrous foundry and non-ferrous foundry schemes respectively, as compared with allocations of £80 million and £20 million respectively.

With total investment being assisted of some £331 million, the ferrous foundry scheme has been a resounding success and should contribute significantly to a major improvement in the industry's overall position. The non-ferrous scheme has still five months to run but it is already making an impact, and I am confident

The Crown Agents kept a file for each borrower and lender into which a record of each transaction was inserted and a diary into which a cross reference was put. During the period in question the Crown Agents carried out many thousands of such transactions. But—as the Fay Report records, for example at paragraph 84—it did not maintain collected or summarised records of its own-account activities.

Forward to