§ Mr. Frank Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, if he will detail, for the Birkenhead area, the number of firms, and the size of the grants paid to each of them, under the new extended assisted status scheme.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonI can now update the information given by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State in his letter of 27 November.
A total of £449,000 has been offered to firms in the Birkenhead constituency. Three firms have been offered a total of £155,000 under the regional selective assistance scheme. A further sum of £294,000 has been offered to nineteen firms under the new regional development grants scheme.
I regret I would have difficulty in supplying any itemised information to the hon. Member. Payments of grant above £5,000 are published in due course in "British Business" but it would undermine the commercial confidentiality of the scheme to make information available in advance of publication.