§ Mr. Colvinasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) if he will review his support for the ship repairing activities of British Shipbuilders in the light of article 92 of the Treaty of Rome;
(2) if he will seek to make changes in the aid arrangements to British Shipbuilders which would enable him in figures published relating to aid given by his Department to distinguish aid spent on ship repairing, including the provision of unremunerative public dividend capital, from aid spent in respect of British Shipbuilders other activities.
§ Mr. ButcherNo Government support is given specifically to ship repair. Public dividend capital is one source of cash among several for meeting the needs of the corporation as a whole and it is not feasible to determine how much of it goes into individual activities of the corporation. However, the House of Commons Select Committee on Industry and Trade, in its first report for 1981–82, published evidence supplied by British Shipbuilders which included a breakdown of profit and loss in 1980–81 for each activity within each subsidiary. The Committee recommended that a similar breakdown by activity be included in British Shipbuilders annual accounts. The Government's reply to this recommendation will be sent to the Committee very shortly.
The European Commission is currently looking into a complaint by the Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders Independent Association about British Shipbuilders ship repair activities. I have nothing further to say at this stage.