§ Mr. Richard Pageasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the total amount of support from public funds provided over the last three years to each of the following industries (a) steel, (b) shipbuilding and (c) electronics.
§ Mr. ButcherThe available information in respect of support for which the Department of Trade and Industry is responsible is as follows:
Steel Industry 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 £ million £ million £ million Issues of public dividend capital to the British Steel Corporation 806 743 396 Assistance under sections 7 and 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 5 14 15 Regional development grant (RDG)* 33 16 25 Assistance to redundant steel workers† 83 66 16 Totals 927 839 452 * BSC only. Separate figures for RDGs to private steel undertakings cannot be extracted from the statistics which are maintained under the orders of the standard industrial classification (SIC). † Payments less contributions from the European Coal and Steel Community.
Shipbuilding Industry 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 £ million £ million £ million Issues of public dividend capital to British Shipbuilders 107 70 275 Credits to shipbuilding intervention fund 47 20 17 Other assistance under sections 7 and 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 — 1 1 Regional development grants 5 9 6 Shipbuilding cost escalation scheme 11 6 6 Assistance towards research and development 5 7 7 Assistance to redundant shipyard workers 14 16 35 Totals 189 129 347
Electronics Industry 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 £ million £ million £ million Assistance towards research and development 21 32 44 Assistance under sections 7 and 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 8 13 8 Totals 29 45 52 NoteSeparate figures for regional development grants to undertakings in the electronics industry cannot be extracted from the statistics which are maintained under the orders of the standard industrial classification (SIC).