§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his oral answer of 1 February,Official Report, columns 2–3, corrected by corrigendum on 8 February, Official Report, columns 785–88, (1) what consultations he has had with the chairmen of (a) British Coal Enterprise, (b) British Steel Enterprise, (c) the Land Authority for Wales (d) the Cardiff Bay development corporation, (e) the Development Board for Rural Wales and (f) the Welsh Development Agency, in relation to accessing the £70 million European regional development fund gross capital expenditure allocation in Wales in 1993–94;
(2) which agencies and which main projects will provide the principal components of the £70 million European regional development fund gross capital expenditure; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. David HuntThe amount of ERDF available to Wales is determined by the European Commission under the agreed operational programmes.
In October last year my officials wrote to all public sector bodies in Wales notifying them of the new arrangements for ERDF grants. However, ERDF is available to a wide range of local and other public authorities, charities and voluntary organisations and it is too early to estimate the distribution of this grant between those bodies, or to say which projects will be funded, since it is for the relevant monitoring committees, comprising representatives of the sponsors concerned, to decide during the remainder of 1993 how to allocate the available resources.
I will make available full public expenditure cover for any sponsor receiving an allocation of ERDF from the programme monitoring committees.