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10 Sep 2007 : Column 2035W—continued
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many residents in each London borough filed for bankruptcy in each of the last five years. [153642]
Mr. McFadden: Table 1 shows the number of bankruptcies in each London borough derived from postcodes provided by bankrupt individuals.
Classifying bankrupts into geographic areas is done using the postcode that the bankrupt individual provides. The use of this in assigning an individual to a borough is thus as reliable as the postcode information provided.
| Table 1: Bankruptcies | |||||
| Borough | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
Nanotechnology
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps his Department is taking to support the manufacturing of micro and nanotechnology. [153308]
Mr. Timms: The Government recognise that MicroNanotechnologies (MNT) have the potential to deliver enormous benefits for society and the economy from the development and manufacturing of new materials and devices, and are committed to supporting industry in harnessing the commercial opportunities offered by such new and emerging technologies, as outlined in our 10-year Science and Innovation Investment Framework, published in 2004.
The delivery mechanism for such support is now the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), which is a non-departmental public body reporting to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. The TSB,
comprising mainly experienced business leaders, identifies the new and emerging technologies critical to the growth of the UK economy into which government funding and activities can be directed.
Over the period 2005 to 2008, £320 million is available to businesses in the form of grants to support research and development in the technology areas identified by the TSB. This includes £90 million already invested in MNT via the following three mechanisms:
Collaborative R&D projects of which there are 49 so far with combined eligible project costs of £61 million and grant support totalling £35 million.
MicroNanoTechnology Centres of which there are 24 so far with a total budget of £172 million and grant support totalling £55 million. Of the 24 facilities, 10 fall specifically under the umbrella of “Nanofabrication”.
The MicroNanoTechnology Knowledge Transfer Network, which was launched in May 2007 to take forward the work of the MicroNanoTechnology community.
Future decisions on technology and funding priorities will lie with the TSB.
New Businesses: East Sussex
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many new businesses established in (a) Eastbourne and (b) East Sussex received Government (i) funding and (ii) assistance in each of the last five years. [151368]
Mr. Timms: Between 2004 and 2006 Sussex Enterprise (the Business Link for Sussex) provided funding and assistance to 45 new businesses in Eastbourne and 172 new businesses in East Sussex, a breakdown by year follows. In this case, new businesses are defined as those that were less than 12 months old at the time of the assistance.
| Eastbourne | East Sussex | |
Before October 2004 it is not possible for Sussex Enterprise to provide figures as a new database was adopted at that time; nor is it possible for the data to be disaggregated further without incurring disproportionate cost.
Neither Eastbourne borough council nor East Sussex county council provided direct assistance to businesses over the course of the period.
Further data on the number of businesses receiving funding or assistance from other sources are not stored centrally.
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