§ Mr. Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what level of match public funds from(a) his Department and (b) the Department for Education and Employment are available to EU Objective 1 regions for each of the next seven calendar years. [104306]
§ Mr. CabornIt is not possible to identify match funding from DTI sources for the next seven calendar years since the Department's current expenditure plan runs until the end of the financial year 2000–01. Spending for following years will be determined as part of the next spending review. The DTI has many programmes which may provide match funding in Objective 1 regions,30W eg Business Links, Foresight, Smart, LINK. Regional Government Offices can advise potential applicants for European structural funding on all of these.
§ Mr. Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the requirements for match public funds from his Department for the EU Objective 1 regions of(a) Cornwall and Scilly, (b) Merseyside and (c) South Yorkshire for each of the seven years of the programme. [104351]
§ Mr. CabornI refer the hon. Member to answer given on 10 November 1999,Official Report, column 637W.
Responsibility for identifying match funding is a matter for the partnerships in the regions concerned.
The Government decided two years ago on the levels of public spending for all departments for a three-year period. We shall review spending plans and bids in the next spending review for the period 2001–04.
The Regional Government Offices are best placed to advise the partnerships on the sources of departmental funding which can be used to match Structural Funds. The Government is updating and improving guidance on match funding. Given that UK annual public expenditure on industry, agriculture and employment alone is around ten times as much as annual commitments from the structural funds, there should be no difficulty for projects in finding match funding.