§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give details for each of the years 1980, 1981 and 1982 of the number of applications and a list of their individual values in £ sterling, in each aid category, received by his Department from voluntary organisations for assistance from the European social fund, the number and individual value in £ sterling in each category of those applications approved by his Department and submitted to the European Commission and the number and individual value in £ sterling in each aid category of those applications submitted to the Commission which were successful.
§ Mr. AlisonEach year my Department receives many hundreds of proposals for assistance from the European social fund. I regret therefore that identifying each proposal from voluntary organisations over the period specified by the hon. Member would involve disproportionate cost. However, if he has a specific case in mind, I shall be happy to provide the information.
It is the policy of my Department to submit every eligible proposal to the European Commission, including those cases where the organisation concerned wishes the application to go forward even though it is not expected to attract sufficient priority under the fund to secure an allocation.
The rest of the information requested is set out in the following table. Where the figure shown in column 4 is less than that in column 2, this will have been the result of one or more of the following factors: a decision by the Commission that part of the application was ineligible or 52W of insufficient priority; withdrawal of part of the application by the applicant; or the fund's financial situation being such that the Commission could only fund a part of the application.
European Social Fund: Applications by Voluntary Bodies Social Fund Field of Intervention Aid Requested (£) Allocation Awarded (£) 1980 Textiles and clothing workers 27,883 27,883 Young people 122,926 11,544 4,019 * *— 12,999 * *— 622,605 3,739 27,763 *— Pilot schemes and studies 8,000 8,000 140,320 140,320 1981 Textiles and clothing workers 132,793 132,793 Migrant workers 94,498 94,498 Young people 64,400 22,400 47,830 47,829 Women 70,892 20,724 105,286 105,286 Technical Progress 40,327 40,327 Handicapped 342,810 342,810 3,750 3,750 Pilot schemes and studies 28,700 28,700 1982 Textiles and clothing workers 132,500 132,500 Young people 72,942 26,957 142,800 63,286 27,170 9,945 97,116 10,882 76,714 76,714 54,268 54,268 Women 28,138 28,138 Regions 53,000 51,500 37,700 37,700 40,000 † †— Technical progress 364,612 109,946 Handicapped 377,091 377,091 15,000 15,000 22,593 22,593 307,871 307,871 Pilot schemes and studies 96,000 96,000 * Entire application classified as 'No Priority' by the European Commission. † Application withdrawn by applicant.