§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the average processing time to approval of a guarantee under the small firms loans guarantee scheme; and how his Department finances the transaction costs in such approvals.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThere is no information available on the time taken to process an application while with a lender. Once received by the DTI loan guarantee section, the average time taken to process an application in 1993–94 was 1.9 days.
None of the lenders transaction costs are met by the DTI. The cost of the small team of DTI staff involved in processing applications is met from the Department's running costs.
§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many applications under the small firms loan guarantee scheme have been made in each financial year since 1990–91; how many have been approved; and what have been the sums guaranteed and the cost to his Department.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe number of applications made, guaranteed, their value and the net cost to the DTI in each year since 1990–91 is shown in the table:
Applications received by DTI Applications guaranteed Sum guaranteed (£ million) Net cost (£ million) 1990–91 3,676 3,387 84.56 16.5 1991–92 3,124 2,933 69.48 27.5 1992–93 2,408 2,342 52.35 19.2 Application figures for 1993–94 will be available shortly and are expected to show a significant increase in applications guaranteed. Fewer applications are guaranteed than are received. Rejections represent only a quarter of this difference. The rest is due to withdrawal by the borrower.