§ Mr. ColemanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if his Department uses the Index of Multiple Deprivation in the allocation of funds. [134574]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonNo. In 1999, the Government, co-ordinated by the Department of Trade and Industry, used ward information from the previous 1998 Index of Local Deprivation in England and its Scottish and Welsh 463W equivalents to help identify areas covered by the urban strand of Objective 2 of the European Structural Funds for the period 2000–06. No similar decisions have occurred since publication of the new Indices of Deprivation 2000.