§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what Government grants in 1985 and 1986 have been given to the newspaper industry in (a) Scotland and (b) the rest of the United Kingdom, for the installation of high technology equipment.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison[pursuant to his reply, 26 March 1986]: I regret that information is not available in the form requested.
However, since 1 January 1985 newspaper printers and publishers have been offered a total of £122,000 of new style regional development grants in respect of projects in Great Britain.
Payments of old RDG are categorised by reference to the Standard Industrial classification 1968 and can only be attributed to groups of related industries (SIC orders). The newspaper industry falls within SIC order XVIII—paper printing and publishing. The latest figures available of such payments to companies within that SIC order for Great Britain for the period 1 January 1985 to 31 December 1985 total £26.6 million, of which £7.1 rnillion relates to projects in Scotland.
In addition companies in Northern Ireland falling within that SIC Order received £3.5 million of regional assistance in the financial year beginning 1 April 1984.