§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) how much money is available to the United Kingdom through the RECHAR scheme for the schemes he recently submitted for each of the years 1990 to 1994;
(2) what criteria qualified wards in Nottingham, North constituency for submission for RECHAR assistance; and which bodies were consulted before the decision was made;
(3) whether Nottinghamshire county council and Nottingham city council were consulted before he submitted the RECHAR list to the European Commission.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggMy Department drew the attention of county, city and district authorities to the notice published by the European Commission about the RECHAR initiative and invited representations. Representations were received from Nottinghamshire county council, among others. Among other bodies consulted was the Coalfield Communities Campaign.
Wards were considered for inclusion in the list of Government's proposals for RECHAR where they were part of a coal-mining area that had suffered sufficient coal-mining job losses to meet the criteria of the Commission's notice.
416WIt is not yet known how much money will be available to the United Kingdom from RECHAR. I hope that the Commission's decision will be reached before the end of this year.