§ Brian CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what has happened to those business support schemes in existence in November 2002 which have not been closed to new business, have not been devolved elsewhere and do not remain open to new business. [144236]
§ Nigel GriffithsMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry's answer to the hon. Member's earlier question on 10 November 2003,Official Report, columns 20–21W, listed the 39 schemes that were no longer open to new business, and cited two 111W schemes that had been transferred on the Regional Development Agencies. This leaves the 52 schemes that are currently open to new business.
In November 2002 over 100 business support schemes were considered to be operational. The figure of 93 reflects in part a consolidation of the previous count. We had, for example, identified and counted separately each of the Link research programmes; these are now aggregated into the reduced total and counted as a single scheme.