§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much in total his Department has failed to recover from companies defaulting on the terms of awards of regional selective assistance for each of the last 10 financial years; and if he will list the companies from which his Department has failed to recoup these moneys. [6481]
§ Mr. Kynoch[holding answer 28 November 1996]The amounts of regional selective assistance grant written off each year since 1990–91, the earliest year for which records are available, are given in the table.572W
£ million Number of individual cases 1990–91 0.45 21 1991–92 1.39 16 1992–93 0.87 21 1993–94 0.20 6 1994–95 19.90 28 1995–96 1.25 13 Payments of regional selective assistance to individual companies are generally regarded as commercially confidential as are any grant payments subsequently recovered or written off. It is, however, already public knowledge that in 1994–95 an amount of £17.6 million was written off in respect of the Health Care International case, and this amount is included in the total shown for that year.