Follow-up Questions
PARAGRAPH 14 OF
REPLY: TERRITORIAL
AGENCIES
It would be helpful to have an account of efforts
made to encourage developments in RDAs learnt from the experience
of territorial agencies in inward investment
Exchanges on best practice are achieved mainly
through the Committee on Overseas Promotion (COP) mechanism. For
example the National Agencies, along with the English Regional
Development Agencies meet regularly around the UK with Invest
UK to discuss quality standards and continuous improvements in
the preparation of client presentations—the so called IBIS
(Invest UK Information System) process. The Welsh Development
Agency has taken the lead on design presentational aspects.
Similarly at the COP Awayday last year, the
National Agencies and the RDAs discussed future trends and marketing
strategies, and exchanged experiences. Locate in Scotland, in
particular, outlined its activities on developing clusters and
knowledge management. The Industrial Development Board for Northern
Ireland (IDBNI) and the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) also touched
on the challenge of ensuring a more even spread of prosperity
throughout Northern Ireland and Wales.
PARAGRAPH 15 OF
REPLY: BENCHMARKING
ROLE OF
THE ENGLISH
FORUM
A note on the outcome of discussions with the
COP and the English Forum on benchmarking among the RDAs and other
UK agencies would be helpful
All National Agencies and Regional Development
Agencies, including Invest UK follow the standard COP Output Measures
definitions. These are intended to enable all Development Agencies
to work on the same basis, so as to ensure consistency in reporting
of "successes", and some measure of benchmarking performance
across the whole network. COP members are required to report annually
on output measures, in line with the format at Appendix A.
In addition the aftercare benchmarking group
(comprising the English regions and the territorial agencies)
meets together to discuss benchmarking and share best practice
on a quarterly basis. They are beginning to address the issue
of qualitative output measures of aftercare activity to demonstrate
the value added they contribute. This group also acts as a forum
for exchanging best practice with the National Agencies, formally
through presentations and informally through networking and sharing
experience.
Invest UK is not a member of the English Forum,
which consists of the Directors/Heads of Inward Investment in
the RDAs as well as the East of England Investment Agency and
London First Centre. We understand that earlier this year, the
English Forum agreed in principle to exchange more information,
in such areas as staffing and sources of funding. Further work
is to be undertaken and discussed at their Autumn meeting. In
addition, the East and West Midlands RDAs have set up joint overseas
operations in the US and Japan, and the three Northern RDAs (the
North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside) have also
similarly set up a collaborative overseas operation in the UK.
PARAGRAPHS 23 &
32 OF REPLY:
CONCORDAT
It would be helpful to have a note on the extent
to which attraction of inward investment from within the UK was
addressed in drawing up the concordat, and on progress in implementing
the concordat
The Concordat on Financial Assistance to Industry
(FAI) sets out UK wide arrangements for consultation on financial
assistance cases, when major potential projects are internationally
mobile or are mobile within the United Kingdom. The Concordat
applies to new inward investors, inward investors who are already
established in the UK, and indigenous British companies seeking
financial support for a new investment or a re-investment.
The Concordat was included in the Devolution
Command Paper (CM 4444), published on 1 October 1999. It has been
agreed by the UK Government and the three Devolved Administrations,
and will be applied across the UK. The Concordat envisages a system
of financial limits on all assistance classified as state aid,
and arrangements for notifying projects which could be the subject
of such assistance. The arrangements covered by the Concordat
provide for consultation and agreement between interested parties
where two or more parts of the UK are in competition for a major
company investment.
Under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Office,
the parties to the Concordat are currently discussing how the
financial and other arrangements will work in practice.
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