§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if Her Majesty's Government's provision for regional selective assistance paid from 31 March onwards includes any assessment in respect of money obtained from the EEC European regional development fund.
§ Mr. AtkinsIn setting the levels of public expenditure on regional selective assistance, Her Majesty's Government take into account the amount of support expected from the European regional development fund. The Supply Estimates to be published in March will give details of the receipts forecast from the fund in 1988–89.
§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will give the forecast for regional selective assistance for the years 1988–89 and 1989–90, and the latest forecast outturn for 1987–88.
§ Mr. AtkinsExpected expenditure by my Department on regional selective assistance in 1988–89 and 1989–90 is £161.5 million and £147.6 million, respectively. The decline between the two years is mainly due to an expected reduction in expenditure on the temporary scheme of assistance for small and medium-sized firms and on the exchange risk guarantee scheme. Provision for expenditure on RSA in 1987–88 currently stands at £121.6 million.
Notes:
- (1) All figures are not of recoveries and domestic receipts but gross of expected EC receipts.
- (2) The following items are included in RSA for the purpose of departmental expenditure estimates:
- — project and training grants.
- — assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises in certain areas affected by rundown in steel, shipbuilding, textile fisheries and tin mining.
- — guarantees for loans from the European Investment Bank and European Coal and Steel Community.
§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will publish the criteria under which assessments for regional selective assistance(a) are, and (b) will be, made.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe criteria against which applications are appraised are set out in my Department's booklet "The Regional Initiative: Guide to Regional Selective Assistance", copies of which have been placed in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether any account of the size of an applicant firm will be taken in assessing eligibility for regional selective assistance.
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§ Mr. AtkinsApplications from firms of all sizes are considered against the same criteria but simplified procedures apply to grants of £25,000 and under.
§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what percentage of decisions on eligibility for regional selective assistance it is contemplated will be based on advice from(a) private consultants or (b) Department of Trade and Industry officials;
(2) whether he will list the types of private sector organisations that will be eligible to receive public money in order to give advice on eligibility for regional selective assistance.
§ Mr. AtkinsThere are no present plans to submit applications to private consultants for advice. However, proposed offers of £100,000 and over are submitted for advice to the relevant regional industrial development board or to the industrial development advisory board, which consist of people from the private sector with relevant experience. Large applications are appraised by the Department's industrial development unit which consists mainly of private sector secondees.
§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether he will make an estimate of the proportion of regional selective assistance recouped by the Inland Revenue as taxable profits.
§ Mr. AtkinsNo. This will depend on the tax position of companies in receipt of regional selective assistance, which is likely to vary widely.
§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many successful applications for regional selective assistance were made in the United Kingdom in each year from 1979–80 to 1986–87; and how many are forecast for 1987–88.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe number of successful applications for regional selective assistance in Great Britain in each full year from 1979–80 was as follows:
Number 1979–80 1,055 1980–81 382 1981–82 830 1982–83 1,011 1983–84 1,097 1984–85 897 1985–86 1,012 1986–87 1,388 Note: These figures are for successful applications for industrial and training grants only.
The number in 1987–88 is expected to be around 1,600.
§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many of the successful applications for regional selective assistance in 1986–87 were for sums in excess of £100,000.
§ Mr. AtkinsA total of 303 successful applications made during 1986–87 in Great Britain received offers of regional selective assistane of over £100,000.
§ Mr. LofthouseTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list the total value of regional assistance given to companies in the Castleford travel-to-work area for each year since 1979.
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§ Mr. AtkinsPayments of grant under the regional selective assistance and original regional development grant schemes to companies in the Castleford and Pontefract travel-to-work area since 1979 were:
£'000 1979 275 1980 1,173 1981 534 1982 423 1983 43 1984 139 1985 17 1986 12 1987 — Noses:
1. The regional development grant element of these data is comprised of individual payments of over £25,000; payments of smaller amounts cannot be attributed to a geographical area smaller than a planning region.
2. Castleford and Pontefract ceased to be an assisted area in 1982.
Mr. Alan WilliamsTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what checks will be made under his proposed new regional investment grant to ensure that firms achieve the promised number of jobs; and how this system of monitoring will compare with the existing procedures for monitoring regional selective assistance.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe creation of jobs will not be a condition of the new regional investment grant but the scheme is expected to have a beneficial effect on employment and we shall be setting up arrangements to evaluate this on a sampling basis.
Under regional selective assistance companies in receipt of offers of assistance are required to submit annual audited reports on the progress of the project and to inform the Department if they fail to reach or maintain the level of jobs specified in the offer. Projects benefiting from regional selective assistance are normally visited at least once during the period in which these conditions apply.
Mr. Alan WilliamsTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many posts at each regional office in England, Scotland and Wales will be redundant as a result of the recently announced changes in regional policy.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe number of posts devoted to the administration of the revised regional development grant scheme in my Department's regional offices is approximately 160. The need for work on regional development grants will gradually cease over a number of years. Depending on their terms and conditions of employment, staff will either be redeployed, where possible, or found alternative posts.
The administration of the scheme in Scotland and Wales is the responsibility of the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales respectively.