HC Deb 27 January 1994 vol 236 cc367-8W
Mr. Nicholas Brown

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what was the total budget of the European Community's scheme to support business under(a) BC-NET, (b) EUROPARTENARIAT and (c) SPRINT in each year since their establishment; and what was the total allocation of each to (i) the northern region and (ii) the United Kingdom as a whole.

Mr. McLoughlin

BC-NET (Business co-operation network) and Europartenariat

BC-Net and Europartenariat are part of the Community's action programme for small and medium-sized enterprises. Separate information on budgets for them is not readily available, but the total budget for the action programme since its commencement in 1989 is as follows:

Year Mecu £ million
1989 18.0 12.1
1990 21.3 15.2
1991 20.4 14.2
1992 24.7 18.2
1993 24.8 18.7
1994 26.8 20.2

Separate figures for expenditure in the northern region and the United Kingdom are not available.

SPRINT (Strategic Programme for Innovation and Technology Transfer)

Prior to 1989, SPRINT was an experimental programme with a comparatively small budget of 18.6 mecu over the period 1983–89.

The main phase of the programme started in 1989 and the annual expenditure since then is as follows:

Year Mecu £ million
1989 5.1 3.4
1990 17.5 12.5
1991 22.8 16.0
1992 22.0 16.2
1993 23.0 17.4
1994 19.0 14.3

Again separate figures for the northern region and the United Kingdom are not available.

Sterling/Ecu conversion rates are shown at average rates prevailing in each calendar year.