§ Dr. John Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether his Department had any discussions with P & O Lines about the placing of its recent order for an £80 million cruise liner; what was the view of his Department; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WakehamMy Department has had no discussions with P& O about this order. The choice of
Halifax travel-to-work-area Industry Act 1972 Total number of Value of offer made/ Number of offers not Value of offer made offers made RDG Payments accepted RDG Payments £ £ (i) Section 7 25 1,654,000 1 63,000 (ii) Section 8 31 294,000 6 6,000 (iii) Regional development grants (See Note (ii)) — 1,397,000 — — 3,345,000 Notes
(i) Companies in receipt of offers of section 7 and section 8 assistance do not normally give reasons for not accepting. In instances where companies do provide reasons, these are a confidential matter between the company and the Department.
(ii) In the case of regional development grants offers are not made; payments are made in retrospect in respect of qualifying expenditure. The figure shown is based on the payments over £25,000 which are published quarterly in British Business.