HC Deb 19 December 1994 vol 251 cc906-8W
Mr. Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for the Vale of Glamorgan (Mr. Sweeney) at 12 December,Official Report, columns 515–16, what legal opinions he has obtained from leading counsel and disclosed to his Department in relation to the propriety of participation by the Welsh Development Agency in underwriting or sub-underwriting of (a) Government privatisation share issues and (b) Welsh-based private company stock market flotations; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Redwood

None. My Department's lawyers are currently considering the legal advice obtained by the agency in 1988 and recently revealed to my Department, and whether further legal advice should be sought.

Mr. Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his answer of 12 December,Official Report, columns 515–16, to the hon. Member for the Vale of Glamorgan (Mr. Sweeney), if he will make a statement on the legal and corporate status of joint venture boards in publicly-funded urban regeneration schemes in Wales.

Mr. Redwood

Joint venture boards set up for the purpose of urban regeneration do not, in general, have separate legal identity.