§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many informal approaches his Department has received from companies seeking payments under regional selective assistance in each financial year since 1979–80. [1717]
§ Mr. Kynoch[holding answer 23 November 1995): Statistical records of informal approaches to the Department are not kept.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what tightening of the procedures in relation to the payment of regional selective assistance his Department made during the last 18 months; [1719]
(2) what section within his Department has responsibility for monitoring companies who have been awarded regional selective assistance; and what procedures are used by this section to monitor these projects. [1724]
§ Mr. Kynoch[holding answer 23 November 1995]: Responsibility for the monitoring of projects which have been awarded regional selective assistance lies with the investment assistance division of the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department. When a company is made an offer of RSA, it is issued with an offer letter which sets out the conditions against which RSA will, assuming the offer is accepted, be payable. Throughout the term of each offer of assistance, and prior to any payment of grant, company progress reports are obtained which have been certified by independent accountants. These allow the division to check that the conditions upon which payment of grant depends have been met. These progress reports are supplemented, as necessary, by the division's own monitoring visits and investigations. The 295W Scottish Office Education and Industry Department, in conjunction with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Welsh Office, has within the last 18 months reviewed its monitoring procedures to ensure that straightforward cases are not handled with unnecessary complexity while higher risk cases are accorded appropriately full attention.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much money his Department offered to companies in regional selective assistance for each financial year since 1979–80; and what proportion of these amounts were fully paid by his Department. [1734]
§ Mr. Kynoch[holding answer 23 November 19951: The information requested is set out in the table:
Year of acceptance Value of offers accepted(£ million) Of which total accepted (£ million) Proportion paid to date (percentage) 1979–80 32.2 27.1 84 1980–81 31.0 23.0 74 1981–82 29.9 22.5 75 1982–83 50.4 39.2 78 1983–84 38.3 34.1 89 1984–85 70.7 55.2 78 1985–86 58.6 44.6 76 1986–87 34.6 26.9 78 1987–88 56.2 37.6 67 1988–89 49.8 34.7 70 1989–90 76.3 50.2 66 1990–91 173.5 99.5 57 1991–92 52.3 36.2 69 1992–93 72.3 43.0 59 1993–94 126.8 51.6 41 1994–95 113.0 22.7 20
- 1. This table refers to the year an offer was accepted. Payments in respect of an offer will normally be spread over several years.
- 2. For the most recent years, some offers are still live and further payments may be made in respect of these.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make it his policy to disclose fully the amounts of money actually received by companies from his Department in regional selective assistance. [1720]
§ Mr. Kynoch[holding answer 23 November 19951: The amount of an offer made to a company, where the offer is over £75,000, is published in "Labour Market Trends" following the first grant payment. It is not intended to depart from this practice.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will make it is policy to instruct his Department to make a new appraisal of the effectiveness of the regional selective assistance scheme; [1721]
(2) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of awards made by his Department under the regional selective assistance scheme; [1722]
(3) what specific measures and sources of funding are available to his Department to support economic development in Scotland. [1723]
§ Mr. Kynoch[holding answer 23 November 1995]: The Government's chief role in supporting economic development is to promote a stable low-inflation economic environment. Within that context, the Scottish Office is responsible for a number of measures which support economic development. For example, it sponsors and funds Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands 296W Enterprise; it encourages inward investment and export promotion through its two joint bureaux with Scottish Enterprise, Locate in Scotland and Scottish Trade International; and it offers grant assistance to encourage industrial investment in the assisted areas.
Regional selective assistance is the principal such grant assistance scheme. The scheme operates throughout Great Britain, under the direction of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Scottish Office and the Welsh Office. Periodic evaluations are made by the independent consultants of the scheme's effectiveness throughout Great Britain. Because of the nature of the RSA scheme there is frequently a period of some three to five years between an application for grant being made and the assisted project being completed, therefore such evaluations have to be undertaken some years in arrears. The most recent evaluation was "Regional Selective Assistance 1985–1988: An Evaluation by PA Cambridge Economic Consultants" published by HMSO in July 1993. This evaluation concluded that RSA was an effective means of raising the level of employment in the assisted areas of Great Britain and that the scheme during the period 1985–88 had resulted in the creation of between 700,000 and 1 million additional job years at a net cost to the Exchequer of between £500 to £700 per job at 1990 prices. It also concluded that the operation of RSA during the period 1980–88 had reduced the assisted areas unemployment rate by about one percentage point compared with what would otherwise have been the case. A further evaluation will be carried out in due course.