§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list, for each scheme operated by his Department under which loans are available, the objectives of the scheme, the number of unrecovered loans, the total value of unrecovered loans, the average number of unrecovered loans for each year since 1990, the average value of unrecovered loans for each year since 1990 and the annual cost of recovering loans.
§ Mr. EggarWhile the Department has the powers under sections 7 and 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 to make selective financial assistance available in the form of loans, these powers have not been exercised since 1988. However, two earlier loans made under section 7 and totalling £1,147,693 were designated as unrecovered in 1990–91, one of £62,000 in 1991–92 and none in 1992–93. It is not possible except at disproportionate cost to provide the total number and value of all unrecovered loans made by the Department, nor to calculate the annual expenditure on recovering loans.