HC Deb 13 July 2000 vol 353 c627W
Mr. Loughton

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish(a) the minutes of his meeting with Regional Development Agency heads in Birmingham in June and (b) each of the business plans subsequently presented by those heads. [130438]

Ms Beverley Hughes

The Deputy Prime Minister and other Ministers met the Regional Development Agency Chairmen in Birmingham on 23 June, to launch a consultation document, "The RDAs as Strategic Drivers of Economic Development". A copy of the document has been placed in the Library of the House.

It has been the practice of successive Administrations not to disclose confidential communication between departments and public bodies, consistent with Section 2 of Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. We will, therefore, not be publishing the minutes of the meeting. The production of a business plan by each RDA is unrelated to this meeting. Two have been published and others are at various stages of preparation.