§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many companies have been awarded regional selective assistance in Scotland and have subsequently not met the terms of the original award;
(2) from which companies his Department has managed to recoup regional selective assistance; how much regional 787W selective assistance was recovered for each of the last five years; and from how many companies these moneys were recovered during each year of this period.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 26 January 1994]: It is envisaged that some investment projects may for good reason be revised, after an offer of regional selective assistance has been made. In some such cases the payment of assistance may still be justified according to the terms of the original offer. In other cases where changes occur which cannot be readily accommodated within the terms of the offer, the Department treats the project either as failed or reduced in scale and will seek repayment of grant paid or reduce the level of offer as appropriate. In the five years to 31 December 1993, 121 projects where some grant had been paid were treated as failed, the principal reason being the liquidation or receivership of the company.
Details of grant recoveries from individual companies are commercially confidential and are not divulged. The recovery figures requested are given in the table.
Amount recovered £ million Number of companies 1989 0.022 2 1990 1.117 9 1991 0.239 7 1992 0.610 4 1993 1.610 5