HC Deb 28 November 1995 vol 267 cc545-6W
Mr. Tipping

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what delays have occurred in the handling of bids for European funds at the Government office for the east midlands; and what are the reasons for these delays. [2758]

Mr. Oppenheim

Delays to agreeing single programming documents with the European Commission have accounted for the majority of time lost to dealing with bids for European structural funds under the programmes administered by the Government Office for the east midlands. Such delays are similar to those experienced by objective 2 and objective 5b programmes across the country. Offers of European social funds and European regional development funds are now beginning to flow on all east midlands mainstream programmes.

Mr. Tipping

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what timetable the Government office for the east midlands has set out to deal with the RECHAR II programme; and when successful projects will be announced. [2757]

Mr. Oppenheim

Two funds contribute to the RECHAR II programme: the European regional development fund and the European social fund.

The deadline for first-round east midlands ERDF RECHAR II applications is 31 December 1995. A total of £10.3 million will be available. The exact timetable for announcing successful projects will depend on the number of bids received and the degree of competition for funds. It is anticipated that the working group to consider ERDF project bids will first meet in March 1996 and that the Government office will make its first formal offers shortly afterwards. A second bidding round for an ERDF allocation of £9.1 million will have a deadline of 31 May 1996.

The position with the ESF is more complex. Because of delays to the RECHAR II programme, it is likely that there will be no ESF bidding round in 1995. The Government have sought a derogation from the European Commission from rules preventing their making retrospective awards of 1995 ESF allocations in 1996. Although no official decision has been received, we understand that such a derogation is unlikely. In this case, 1995 ESF allocations will be rolled forward into 1996 giving a total fund of up to £4.1 million. The closing date for bids for this tranche will be 19 January 1996. The timetable for announcing successful ESF projects will be similar to that for ERDF.