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Housing Executive Assessments

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many Housing Executive grant assessments are outstanding in the South Down Area. [190535]

Mr. Spellar: The information is not available in the format requested. Information relating to grant enquiries is held on a district council area basis. The South Down area is covered by three council areas and at 30 September 2004 the Housing Executive had registered a total of 996 inquiries for grant aid where inspections have not yet been carried out. The figures for each area are as follows:

	Number
Banbridge council area	136
Newry and Mourne council area	444
Down council area	416

Housing Relocation (Intimidation)

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the use of alternative agencies to verify cases of intimidation for purposes of housing relocation. [190536]

 
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Mr. Spellar: In order to verify cases of intimidation, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive will, in the first instance, contact the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to confirm whether, on the basis of their knowledge of a particular case, an applicant has been or is being intimidated from their home. Where the PSNI have no knowledge of intimidation, and an applicant is reluctant to make contact with them, the Housing Executive may seek information from "Base 2", a project operated by the EXTERN voluntary organization, or from agencies such as Health Trusts, Social Services or from individuals.

In all cases the final decision as to whether an applicant is at risk by remaining in their home rests with the Housing Executive.

Identity Cards

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what his policy is on the introduction of an identity card scheme in Northern Ireland. [190702]

Mr. Spellar: The draft Identity Cards Bill (published 26 April) set out the legal framework for the introduction of identity cards throughout the United Kingdom

Investment Projects

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much was spent in the parliamentary constituencies of (a) North, (b) South, (c) East and (d) West Belfast on each investment project sponsored by the Industrial Development Board and Invest NI in the years 1990 to 2004; what the estimate was of the number of jobs that would be created by each project; how many jobs were created by each project; and how many of these jobs have subsequently been lost. [190180]

Mr. Gardiner: The Question asked by my hon. Friend seeks information on each investment project assisted during the period 1990–2004. This level of detail could be provided only at disproportionate cost. For this reason and for ease of reference the answer presents a general analysis of investment activity in the four constituencies. The question also requests information for the period 1990–2004. However, data in the format required is only available for the period commencing 1995.

Table 1: Projects by Constituency 1995–2004

Table 1 provides details of projects supported by the Industrial Development Board (IDE) since 1995, and of those larger projects assisted by Invest NI since 2002. The answer is restricted to larger projects supported by Invest NI to ensure consistency with historical IDE data. Larger projects are those provided with offers worth more than £100,000.
 
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Parliamentary constituency/ Financial year	Number of projects	Number of jobs promoted	Number of jobs safeguarded	Total assistance offered (£000)	Total investment (£000)
Belfast East
1995–96	2	0	656	6,841,200	58,330,000
1996–97	4	95	0	1,781,500	11,758,630
1997–98	8	769	917	25,506,517	136,030,244
1998–99	5	1,186	165	7,093,240	15,372,000
1999–2000	3	1,310	78	15,139,000	89,939,280
2000–01	3	116	56	717,660	2,400,720
2001–02	2	142	90	4,556,060	22,743,000
2003–04	3	0	369	8,800,000	34,338,000
Belfast East total	30	3,618	2,331	70,435,177	370,911,874
Belfast North
1995–96	3	138	3	1,081,350	3,246,000
1996–97	6	117	251	5,456,346	36,496,886
1997–98	6	639	220	8,206,450	35,538,000
1998–99	1	250	0	2,493,811	3,670,000
1999–2000	3	289	0	1,906,500	5,815,600
2000–01	3	1,476	0	10,385,000	21,897,000
2001–02	4	675	0	4,213,250	15,588,363
2002–03	2	0	400	330,000	1,565,000
2003–04	5	163	218	1,261,000	14,177,613
Belfast North total	33	3,747	1,092	35,333,707	137,994,462
Belfast South
1995–95	3	93	61	482,200	2,640,000
1996–97	4	203	15	1,674,446	6,148,007
1997–98	5	1,571	134	9,406,456	19,900,058
1998–99	15	1,034	52	7,017,014	19,360,750
1999–2000	7	1,943	0	21,552,500	76,828,000
2000–01	8	877	0	4,700,500	23,004,691
2001–02	1	45	0	202,500	834,000
2002–03	6	228	16	1,349,942	5,306,884
2003–04	13	919	792	10,470,400	69,050,540
Belfast South total	62	6,913	1,070	56,855,958	223,072,930
Belfast West
1995–96	5	477	24	14,385,420	36,404,934
1996–97	7	810	772	32,416,620	109,369,359
1997–98	3	346	0	7,068,250	24,185,000
1998–99	1	75	0	700,950	2,446,200
1999–2000	1	314	0	6,325,200	17,413,000
2000–01	3	385	0	2,455,550	9,678,000
2001–02	2	215	60	4,536,000	23,947,000
2002–03	4	122	80	1,464,500	9,419,000
2003–04	3	167	70	6,144,372	19,266,881
Belfast West Total	29	2,911	1,006	75,496,862	252,129,374
Grand Total	154	17,189	5,499	238,121,704	984,108,640

 
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Table 2: Employment Change 1995–2004

Table 2 presents a net employment figure at 2003–04, taking into account job losses from the base year to 2003–04. As shown within Table 2 there were 13,048 jobs in existence within these businesses at the time of assistance (base year). The table also details the number of jobs expected to be created (17,189). The net change within this group to 2004 is therefore 4,685.
 
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However, it should be noted that since it takes a number of years for each project to reach maturity, those assisted within the last four years are unlikely to have yet met their full employment creation potential. Therefore, the job creation arising from these projects, which account for 5,530 of the jobs promoted, will not be fully reflected within this analysis.

Parliamentary constituency	Number of clients	Number of projects	Average base employment	New jobs promoted	Average BMP 03/04
Belfast East	20	30	7609	3,618	7,697
Belfast North	24	33	1187	3,747	1,987
Belfast South	51	62	1585	6,913	4,173
Belfast West	19	29	2666	2,911	3,876
Total	114	154	13,048	17,189	17,733

Table 3: Job Losses 1995–2004

Table 3 provides further details of the employment lost due to closures during the nine-year period. This shows that 726 jobs were lost within 26 projects involving existing businesses, which closed during the period 1995–96 to 2003–04.

Parliamentary constituency	Number of clients	Employment losses
Belfast East	2	9
Belfast North	7	299
Belfast South	11	119
Belfast West	6	299
Total	26	726

Londonderry Airport

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he will announce his response to the request from the city council in Londonderry regarding financial assistance to develop Londonderry airport. [190817]

Mr. Spellar: A steering group set up by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and chaired by the council's Chief Executive is currently considering a range of technical, legal, economic and financial issues regarding the funding application. I hope that it will report shortly so that a decision can then be made.

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