§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will list the allocation of objective 5 funds made so far within Scotland under(a) RETEX, (b) PESCA, (c) LEADER II and (d) other schemes; [29242]
(2) what funds have been made available to the Hawick and Peebles travel-to-work areas to date; and what plans he has to make further allocations; [29243]
(3) what extent textile dependency in travel-to-work areas contributes to eligibility for RETEX funding; [29244]
(4) which diversification schemes in the Scottish Borders council area have received financial support from RETEX funding to date; and what additional schemes are currently under consideration. [29245]
§ Mr. KynochThe table shows the allocations of the relevant Community initiative resources to objective 5b areas in Scotland. In some cases, specific allocations are not made and in others allocations are indicative.
£ million UK allocation Scotland allocation Objective 5b allocation RETEX II (1994 to 1997) 26.600 15.450 11.388 PESCA (Non Objective 1sub-programme 1995 to 1999) n/a 10.106 n/a LEADER II (Objective 5b programme 1995 to 1999) n/a 6.906 6.906 SME (Lowlands programme 1995 to 1999) n/a 7.071 n/a EMPLOYMENT (1994 to 1999) 111.778 n/a n/a ADAPT (1995 to 1999) 226.014 n/a n/a 1 Denotes indicative allocation only. Textile dependency as set out in article 6 of the
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1993–1994 1994–1995 Local Authority prior to 1st April 1996 Column 1 £ Column 2 £ Column 3 £ Column 1 £ Column 2 £ Column 3 £ Aberdeen 809,072 640,072 169,000 1— 523,733 1— Angus 227,896 181,207 46,689 257,057 217,385 39,672 Annandale and Eskdale 206,888 183,879 23,009 185,571 79,394 106,177 Argyll and Bute 131,840 52,285 79,555 33,572 5,892 26,680 Badenoch and Strathspey 103,205 97,862 5,343 75,640 64,310 11,330 Banff and Buchan 1— 1— 1— 174,151 36,456 137,695 Bearsden and Milngavie 50,493 37,853 12,640 56,113 35,769 20,344 Berwickshire 86,045 84,044 2,001 155,000 153,000 2,000 Caithness 10,403 5,112 5,291 13,566 8,567 4,999 Clackmannan 143,749 94,223 49,526 118,439 75,613 42,826 Clydebank 48,838 30,400 18,438 43,622 36,248 7,374 Clydesdale 474,981 466,530 8,451 309,958 297,914 12,044 Cumbernauld and Kilsyth 111,101 38,363 72,738 66,268 24,401 41,867 Cunnock and Doon Valley 1— 1— 1— 61,526 45,492 16,034 Commission's guidelines as decided on 13 May 1992 (Official Journal number C 142, 4 June 1992), determined the eligibility for funding under RETEX.
The Borders objective 5b programme was allocated some £24 million of European funding for the period 1994 to 1999. To date £862,600 of, European regional development funding has been made available to the Hawick travel-to-work area and £367,500 has been made available to the Peebles travel-to-work area. In addition, match funding of £1,497,600 has been provided by project sponsors.
Under European Social funding, a total of £1,958,480, involving match funding of £2,393,698, has been allocated to the Borders region under objective 3 and 5b. Beneficiaries from the Hawick and Peebles travel-to-work areas have been supported.
The Scottish RETEX II working group met on 30 April and recommended for approval, subject to further information three Borders projects with combined funding of £330,000. The projects involve diversification into the developing environmental technologies. There are currently no other applications under consideration. The deadline for the next round of applications under RETEX II is 30 August 1996.