§ Mr. Amessasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the various programmes encouraging interaction between schools and industry; and if he will give the number of corporate and student participants in each.
§ Mr. PattieThere are a great many ways in which schools and industry work together, and there are a large number of organisations, both at local and national level,
TABLE 1 SDA DA IA Assisted areas (pre-29 November 1984 definitions) Payments1 (£ million) Payments per head2 £ Payments1 (£ million) Payments per head2 £ Payments1 (£ million) Payments per head2 £ Scotland 106.3 87.72 30.6 94.33 2.9 32.78 Wales 63.2 234.13 36.2 59.56 1.6 10.57 Northern 44.4 48.41 27.4 141.46 0.6 6.43 North West 59.3 83.52 5.7 27.12 2.2 5.71 Yorkshire and Humberside — — 22.4 54.47 2.7 6.13 East Midlands — — 5.9 195.53 0.5 17.34 South West 1.6 47.10 7.7 33.51 0.4 3.49 1 All figures are gross and include payments to nationalised industries. 2 Information on the insured population is not available in terms of pre-29 November 1984 assisted area coverage. Therefore payments per head have been calculated using estimates of the working population for these areas. Note: The items included in the expenditure are section 7, regional selective assistance and old regional development grants under the Industrial Development Act 1982.
Payments and payments per head (provisional basis) for regional aid as defined below made under the conditions for assistance relating to the post-28 November 1984 assisted areas were as follows:
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Table 2 DA IA Assisted areas (post-28 November 1984 definitions) Payments3 4 (£ million) Payments per heads5 (£) Payments3 4 (£ million) Payments per heads5 (£) Scotland 14.5 12.65 0.2 0.58 Wales 20.1 53.12 10.5 17.88 Northern 19.0 20.72 2.4 14.87 which seek to encourage them. There is no requirement on schools and industry to notify their involvement, however, and so the detailed information that my hon. Friend requires is not collected centrally. I am, however, pleased to say that Industry Year 1986 has led to a considerable increase in liaison between schools and industry and it is estimated that some 60 per cent. of schools now have formal links with at least one company, and the number is growing. Many of the others have more informal arrangements with companies.
I am also placing in the Library copies of a directory of "Schools Industry Links" published by the Department of Education and Science and my Department, which describes the work of the main national organisations in this area.