§ Mr. SillarsTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will list under each category of public sector financial assistance available to both inward investors and established companies in Scotland between 1979 and the latest available figures the total amount granted to incoming companies and the total amount granted to established companies and the average grant per company in each category by size;
(2) what has been the total amount of public sector and central Government financial assistance made available to incoming firms since the formation of Locate in Scotland.
§ Mr. LangComprehensive information in the form requested is not available. Between January 1979 and December 1989, a total of £321 million of regional selective assistance under section 7 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 was offered in Scotland to companies whose ultimate ownership lay outside the United Kingdom, and £297 million was offered to domestically owned companies. The average size of offer made to foreign owned companies was £0.81 million and to domestically owned companies £0.17 million, reflecting the fact that inward investors tend to set up larger projects. Not all of these offers were taken up. A total of £284 million of this assistance was offered to foreign owned companies since the formation of Locate in Scotland in 1981.
Corresponding information for other types of assistance and data by size of company are not available, or could be provided only at disproportionate costs.