HC Deb 27 March 1998 vol 309 cc336-7W
Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the payment priority given to voluntary sector organisations running European Social Fund projects under (a) Objective 1, (b) Objective 2 and (c) Objective 3. [35393]

Mr. Andrew Smith

New funding arrangements introduced this year will enable this Department to pay European Social Fund (ESF) claims without waiting for funds from the European Commission. This arrangement will apply to ESF claims dating from 1997 to the second payment for 1999 and should lead to speedier payments for all sectors involved. The claims will have to be checked first and must be accurate and have appropriate supportive documentation. Accurate claims submitted by the voluntary sector will be given priority under all ESF programmes and paid first.

Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what measures he proposes in order to speed up European Social Fund payments to voluntary sector organisations running Objective 3 projects. [35395]

Mr. Andrew Smith

Payments for accurate claims dating from 1997 to the second payment in 1999 will be made without waiting for funding to arrive from the European Commission. This arrangement should lead to speedier payments for all sectors. Claims received from the voluntary sector will be checked on a daily basis and once they are accurate will be given priority for processing.

Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the procedures the promoters of an approved ESF Objective 3 project run by a voluntary sector organisation must undertake before payment can be made by his Department. [35396]

Mr. Andrew Smith

Promoters should submit accurate, completed claim forms including the appropriate supportive documentation. Once the claims have been checked and are correct they can be processed for payment. We will not need to wait for funds to arrive from the European Commission before making payments for accurate claims dated from 1997 to the second payment in 1999.

Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the final claim payment dates for ESF Objective 3 voluntary sector projects for each year since the start of the current programme. [35397]

Mr. Andrew Smith

The current Objective 3 programme started in January 1997 and will finish in December 1999. The deadline for projects to submit their final claims for the 1997 programme to this Department's European Social Fund Unit was 13 March 1998. The Department's ESF Unit has so far received 1,170 of the expected 1,625 final claims.

The final claims are now being checked on a daily basis. Final claims received from the voluntary sector are given priority for processing. Final claim payments will be paid once they have been checked and are correct and we expect payments to begin sometime in April 1998.