Bass plc (Hansard, 17 January 2001)

§ Dr. Howells

The Belgian Economics Minister, Charles Picque, wrote to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on 8 January raising a number of points about my right hon. Friend's decision on Interbrew's acquisition of Bass Brewers. Mr. Picque argued that my right hon. Friend's decision did not affect the interests of Scottish & Newcastle and that an

Innovation Budget
£000
Financial year¹	1989–90	1990–91	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
England	80,536	147,207	268,582	144.704	98,580	91,370	90,729	55,026	106,037	56,064	48,969
East	19,335	17,287	28,286	17,573	8,872	10,897	5,987	4,405	5,611	4,322	4,777
East Midlands	7,198	10,282	9,036	6,711	8,155	5,264	4,351	4,165	3,260	3,749	2,787
London	7,353	74,850	126,064	37,549	27,830	16,812	50,852	21,960	71,894	29,190	25,467
Merseyside	2,053	2,992	5,401	2,741	1,089	1,666	2,227	2,207	3,236	1,478	641
North East	1,434	1,120	4,929	1,738	3,029	2,087	1,083	1,886	1,157	1,012	2,278
North West	4,967	5,855	8,198	5,529	3,171	2,248	2,366	3,246	3,829	826	1,068
South East	16,184	14,184	58,060	45,443	26,266	40,463	10,816	8,116	8,444	5,485	3,834
South West	7,894	6,439	9,211	11,221	7,520	3,120	4,236	3,244	2,227	2,663	1,959
West Midlands	10,207	9,479	14,718	8,742	6,549	4,715	5,052	2,706	3,347	3,645	1,588
Yorkshire and Humberside	3,911	4,719	4,679	7,457	6,099	4,098	3,759	3,091	3,032	3,694	4,570
Scotland	2,233	4,784	27,061	6,641	15,646	3,752	4,900	16,084	5,372	5,764	13,423
Wales	1,153	1,859	4,472	2,646	3,561	2,728	3,313	2,417	2,749	2,057	1,902
Northern Ireland	356	569	506	421	515	298	501	310	590	38	521
Not Applicable²	14,892	30,416	29,686	36,222	21,137	38,130	27,811	39,715	24,694	17,103	11,598
Work Done Abroad	147	424	650	1,383	164	181	67	—	142	19	115
Work Being Subcontracted	221	—	—	—	24	—	—	—	—	—	—
Total	99,538	185,259	330,957	192,017	139,627	136,459	127,321	113,552	139,584	81,045	76,528
¹ The data have been extracted from the Department's Selective Assistance Management Information System (SAMIS) database
² The 'Not Applicable' figures relate to awareness projects, the costs of which benefit nationwide and therefore cannot be broken down further by individual region

Department of Trade and Industry—Grants—Regional Selective Assistance and Regional Enterprise Grants Expenditure
£000
Financial year¹	1989–90	1990–91	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
England	106,433	97,252	81,588	76,891	102,812	124,866	126,977	110,739	125,765	114,288	89,379
East²	—	—	—	—	33	641	2,066	1,510	2,114	691	546
East Midlands	1,315	1,645	994	937	1,484	5,283	7,245	10,535	10,535	7,055	3,982
London²	—	—	—	—	64	576	1,724	2,961	2,692	3,196	2,269
North East	34,406	30,049	29,122	28,810	33,608	36,397	45,257	23,637	36,789	19,989	17,477
North West³	32,922	29,069	25,535	20,263	22,269	34,112	25,106	23,847	22,227	28,233	25,571
South East²	—	—	—	—	36	921	4,127	4,092	4,382	3,240	5,020
South West	5,030	5,150	6,437	5,895	7,220	9,147	7,567	7,541	4,463	9,354	4,160
West Midlands	20,146	17,512	8,721	10,733	14,356	14,799	14,247	25,434	29,816	30,595	20,569
Yorkshire and Humberside	12,614	13,827	10,779	10,253	23,742	22,990	19,638	11,182	12,747	11,935	9,785
Scotland	39,260	69,594	66,231	61,939	72,540	79,167	73,087	74,743	77,747	74,449	52,043
Wales	35,896	31,738	56,534	59,490	50,646	58,158	54,613	48,479	76,820	81,219	46,456
Northern Ireland⁴	127,100	132,100	138,000	105,600	117,600	132,900	131,200	137,100	156,100	153,300	133,000
Total	308,689	330,684	342,353	303,920	343,598	395,091	385,877	371,061	436,432	423,256	320,876
¹ Data have been extracted from the Industrial Development Act 1982 Annual Report for the Financial Years 1992–93 to 1999–2000
² Regional Selective Assistance was not available in the East, London and the South East before 1993–94
³ The figures for the North West include data for Merseyside-these data cannot be broken down further
⁴ Northern Ireland operate their own scheme and the grants provided have a different range of financial incentives to those provided in the rest of the United Kingdom

236W

alternative decision could have been taken which would not have penalised Interbrew so heavily. My right hon. Friend will reply as soon as is practicable.