§ Mr. Spriggsasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish in the
£ Million at 1977 Survey Prices (net) 1976–77 1977–78 Regional Development Grants … … … … … … … 392 380 Selective Assistance in Assisted Areas … … … … … … 19 34 Selective Assistance to Individual Industries, Firms and Undertakings … 83 78 Assistance to the Shipbuilding Industry … … … … … 14 41 Regional development grants, other Industry Act grants and investment grants paid by the Department to industry were £471 million in 1976–77 and were forecast to total £503 million in 1977–78, at survey prices.
Details of offers of Industry Act assistance amounting to £10,000 or more, and payments of regional development grants exceeding £25,000 are published quarterly in Trade & Industry.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarkeasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether pay policy conditions to offers of financial assistance to industry under the Industry Act 1972 follow a set form or are negotiable by each applicant.
§ Mr. Cryer, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 19th May 1978; Vol. 950, c. 312], gave the following information:
In deciding whether or not to provide selective financial assistance, and, if so, on what conditions, the Government take account of the factors relevant to the statutory purposes and to the particular case, including compliance with pay policy. As my right hon. Friend said in the debate on 7th February, pay policy is not rigidly applied. Accordingly, the pay policy conditions will not necessarily be applied in the same form in all cases.
510WOfficial Report details of regional development grants, and selective assistance to firms in the United Kingdom, respectively, during the last two years for which this information is available; and what was the total public spending on grants to industry in those two years.
§ Mr. CryerThe following is my Department's expenditure for regional development grants and Industry Act selective assistance to firms, included in Table 2.4 of the 1977 public expenditure White Paper (Cmnd 7049):