§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what representations he has had from voluntary organisations about the financial difficulties caused to them by the system of funding for ESF projects; and what action he proposes to take;
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Allocations 1991 1992 1993 £ million Per cent. £ million Per cent. £ million Per cent. Local authorities 123.31 33.53 131.24 34.76 217.59 34.87 Voluntary sector 24.20 6.58 29.27 7.75 59.80 9.58 Higher education 19.87 5.40 20.56 5.45 46.34 7.43 Industrial training organisations 5.59 1.52 6.75 1.79 15.42 2.47 (2) what steps he has taken to give voluntary organisations an indication about whether their European social fund projects which started on 1 January last will be funded; and what are the reasons for this policy;
(3) what representations he has made to the European Union about the practice of retrospective funding for ESF projects; and what assurances he has had about improvements.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThere have been a number of representations from voluntary sector organisations concerned about the delay in agreeing plans with the Commission and the consequent effect on money being released from Brussels. This concern is shared by the United Kingdom Government who continue to put pressure on the Commission to respond formally to the objective 3 plan which was submitted last November.
The United Kingdom Government agreed to arrangements that allowed requests for expenditure received by the European Commission by 30 April 1994 against agreed priorities to be regarded as eligible for assistance from the Structural Funds—including European social fund—backdated to 1 January 1994. Plans for objectives 1, 2, 3 and 5b have either been submitted or will be submitted to the Commission by the end of April. However, until plans have been agreed with the Commission it is not possible to approve formally any projects for 1994. No resources can be made available for individual projects until funds are received from the Commission.
For all objectives, the 1993 operational year was extended until 31 March 1994 to allow activity to continue following representations from applicant organisations, This has helped voluntary organisations, among others, to continue their work.
§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment on what date in each of the past five years voluntary organisations were told whether they had funding for European social fund projects starting on 1 January of that year.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThere is no single date in any year when voluntary organisations are given approval for European social fund—ESF—funding. A timetable is agreed between the ESF unit and voluntary sector co-ordinators or regional secretariats for submitting applications. This is dependent on the United Kingdom receiving formal decisions from the Commission. Once applications are received, the ESF unit aims to process them within six weeks. We give top priority to the processing of voluntary sector applications.
§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give a breakdown in financial and percentage terms of how ESF funding is allocated to his Department's projects, local authority projects, voluntary organisation and other projects in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe following table sets out the information requested:
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1991 1992 1993 £ million Per cent. £ million Per cent. £ million Per cent. TEC-LEC 1.03 0.28 6.40 1.69 22.56 3.61 Government 192.91 52.46 182.53 48.34 261.14 41.85 Miscellaneous 0.85 0.23 0.82 0.22 1.16 0.19 Total 367.75 100.00 377.57 100.00 624.01 100.00 Information for 1990 broken down by sector could be obtained only by manual analysis at disproportionate cost. Figures for 1989 are available only from the Commission. All money allocated in 1990 which was not taken up was carried forward for use in 1991.
The figures for 1991 and 1992 relate to the final amounts paid to the sectors, whereas those for 1993 relate to amounts originally approved, since final claims for the programmes in question have not yet been submitted.
The figures for Community initiatives between 1991 and 1993 are included in the 1993 figures.
§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how much ESF funding has been allocated in real and constant price terms to the Scottish voluntary sector in each of the past 10 years.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe information about European social fund support to the Scottish voluntary sector is set out in the following table. The Employment Department took over responsibility for the administration and payment of applications for ESF from the European Commission with effect from the 1990 calendar year; information prior to this is only available from the Commission.
Cash(£) 1990 prices(£) 1990 5,574,325 5,574,325 1991 8,322,510 7,866,267 1992 10,267,161 9,283,147 1993 18,736,309 16,377,892
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 Requests for collective conciliation 1,059 1,164 1,260 1,386 1,207 Referrals to ACAS arbitration 138 169 200 157 162 Requested advisory mediation work 985 1,144 964 947 787 Individual conciliation cases 44,443 48,817 52,071 60,605 72,166 Public enquiries 315,601 349,324 418,394 466,954 487,778 The figures for 1993 will be available in June 1994, when the ACAS annual report 1993 is expected to be published.