§ 12. Mr. GroganTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the potential benefits to the Yorkshire and Humber economy of regional government. [173991]
§ Mr. RaynsfordImproving the economic performance of the region will be at the heart of the objectives of an elected regional assembly in Yorkshire and Humber. An elected assembly will be expected to agree with Central Government a target for improving its region's economic performance.
§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the companies to which he has awarded contracts in relation to the Your Say information campaign on elected regional assemblies; and, what the value was of each component of the contract for each. [172753]
§ Mr. RaynsfordFor the Robson Brown contract I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on the 5 May 2004,Official Report, columns 1603–04W.
A self employed copy-writer has been appointed to write for the website and printed materials.
(a) Printed material—£3,100The following companies have been appointed for individual printing jobs.
£ (a) Impress Printing of calendars 835 (b) Sterling Printing of leaflets and fact sheets 59,364 (b) Taurus Printing of letterhead, fact sheets, folders 3,199 (c) CW print Printing of fact sheets 1,230 Two further companies have been appointed contracts (to date no costs have been paid).
(a) The company Reading Room has been appointed to design and build the website an improved Office of the Deputy Prime Minister about regional governance.
(b) The company Carat is the Office's media buyer and has been appointed to buy the media.
§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the annual funding for 2004–05 is for(a) regional chambers, (b) the English Regions Network and (c) the Regional Co-ordination Unit; what the total funding has been for each year since their creation; and what the predicted budget is for the next financial year, broken down by (i) region and (ii) specific grant. [172754]
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§ Mr. RaynsfordThe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister makes a grant to the regional chambers and the English Regions Network to support their work. Details of the grant they have been allocated since they were designated by my right Hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister are detailed in the following table:
Table 1. Chamber and Year Strengthening Regional
Accountability
Grant
Regional Planning
Body
Grant
Planning Delivery Grant
Total East 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,000 2003–2004 600,000 758,000 516,000 1,874,000 2004–2005 600,000 758,000 754,000 2,112,000 East Midlands 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,00 2003–2004 600,000 666,000 365,000 1,631,000 2004–2005 600,000 666,000 790,000 2,055,000 North East 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,000 2003–2004 600,000 545,000 263,000 1,408,000 2004–2005 600,000 545,000 563,000 1,708,000 North West 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,000 2003–2004 600,000 868,000 369,000 1,837,000 2004–2005 600,000 868,000 1,068,000 2,536,000 South East 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,000 2003–2004 600,000 1,005,000 581,000 2,186,000 2004–2005 600,000 1,005,000 1,675,000 3,280,000 South West 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,000 2003–2004 600,000 689,000 324,000 1,613,000 2004–2005 600,000 689,000 812,000 2,101,000 West Midlands 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,000 2003–2004 600,000 739,000 332,000 1,671,000 2004–2005 600,000 739,000 732,000 2,071,000 Yorkshire and the Humber 2001–2002 500,000 — — 500,000 2002–2003 600,000 — — 600,000 2003–2004 600,000 730,000 325,000 1,655,000 2004–2005 600,000 730,000 593,000 1,923,000 English Regions Network 2001–2002 1,000,000 — — 1,000,000 2002–2003 200,000 — — 200,000 2003–2004 200,000 — — 200,000 2004–2005 200,000 — — 200,000 All-Total 2001–2002 5,000,000 — — 5,000,000 2002–2003 5,000,000 — — 5,000,000 2003–2004 5,000,000 6,000,000 3,075,000 14,075,000 2004–2005 5,000,000 6,000,000 6,987,000 17,987,000 Grant allocations for future years have not yet been agreed.
The Regional Co-ordination Unit was created in April 2001. Its annual funding is:
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£ 2001–2002 9,623,600.00 2002–2003 7,496,130.00 2003–2004 14,506,530.00 2004–2005 10,535,730.00 The Unit's funding consists of the running costs for the organisation itself and budgets that it holds centrally on behalf of the Government Office network as a whole which includes staff from 10 Central Government departments. The running costs of the organisation in 2004–05 are £4,522,000.00 The centrally held budgets will be used to fund Government Office activities across the nine English Regions, but they are managed within the Unit and are not split by region.
§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his Answer of 19 April 2004,Official Report, column 366W, on regional assemblies, what proportion of each of those costs will be spent in (a) the North East, (b) the North West and (c) Yorkshire and the Humber. [172914]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe £5 million budget allocation for the "Your Say" information campaign is not broken down by individual region. The information campaign operates across all three regions.