§ Mr. CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the total income of Business Links nationally broken down by(a) his Department's grants, (b) EU and other public funding, (c) charges to customers and (d) grants from Business Link national partners for (i) 1997–98 and (ii) 1998–99; and what estimate he has made for 1999–2000. [86637]
§ Mr. WillsThe total amount of funding provided for the Business Links programme by the Department in the periods 1997–98 and 1998–99 were £129.2 million and £121.1 million respectively. For 1999–2000, the Department has earmarked £139 million for Business188W Links programme funding, which includes an element of funding specifically for developing services of the new Small Business Service.
Business Links are private, independent organisations and the Department does not collect statistics on income from EU and other public funding or on grants from Business Link national partners. But we estimate that total Business Link company fee income from customers to be of the order of £21 million in 1997–98, £31 million in 1998–99 and £36 million in 1999–2000.