§ Mr. Crowtherasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry why an announcement was made on 17 May that the proposed inward mission of buyers to the Interbuild '85 exhibition would not be eligible for British Overseas Trade Board funding, when negotiations about the proposed mission had been taking place between the British Overseas Trade Board and overseas posts up to a few days previously.
§ Mr. FletcherThe decision not to provide the British Overseas Trade Board support for the proposed inward mission to the Interbuild '85 exhibition was based not on eligibility but on the availability of funds.
The funds available to the BOTB for mounting inward missions in 1985–86 fell short of the amount that would be required to meet all the requests from industry. It was therefore necessary to establish a priority ranking amongst the various applications. Where appropriate, discussions with overseas posts continued during the priority review, in order that there should be no loss of momentum for the successful applications. In this particular case, however, BOTB was not involved in discussions with the overseas posts after the end of March. Overseas posts were not informed of the outcome of the priority review until the final decision on all the applications being considered had been taken and the relevant trade bodies had been told.