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6 Oct 2008 : Column 288W—continued
Regional Development Agencies: Offices
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what expenditure was incurred by regional development agencies in maintaining offices overseas in 2007-08; and what expenditure on such offices has been budgeted for in 2008-09. [222829]
Mr. McFadden: The English Regional Development Agencies maintain representation overseas for the purpose of attracting inward investment, an important element of the Regional Economic Strategy for each region. The following table shows Regional Development Agencies' expenditure on overseas offices.
| £000 | ||
| RDA | Actual 2007-08 | Budgeted for 2008-09 |
| (1) EEDA no longer maintains overseas offices. (2) Following the London elections, the new Mayoral administration have committed to a review of the GLA Group's overseas offices. This review is currently ongoing and it is therefore important to note that these are only projected costs and could be subject to significant change. (3) In October 2007 Yorkshire Forward implemented a new strategy regarding overseas investment and part of this included making provision to attract inward investors from Western Europe. Also, a Yorkshire Forward representative in Mumbai was appointed in December 2007. | ||
Regional Development Agencies: Public Appointments
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 11 June 2008, Official Report, column 15WS, on regional development agencies: re-appointments, what the declared political activity of each of the 12 re-appointed board members is. [223012]
Mr. McFadden: The declared political activity of each of the 12 re-appointed board members is detailed as follows.
Advantage West Midlands: David Brown, John Crabtree
ONE NorthEast: Ian Brown, Kate Welch
NorthWest Regional Development Agency: Vanda Murray
South West of England Regional Development Agency: Kelvyn Derrick
Yorkshire Forward: Barry Dodd
Regional Development Agencies: Small Businesses
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent research has been carried out by his Department into the procedures for small and medium enterprises to apply for regional development agency support. [223336]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 15 September 2008]: The Department has not recently carried out specific and detailed research into the procedures for small and medium enterprises to apply for regional development agencies’ support.
Regional Planning and Development: Finance
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 25 June 2008, Official Report, column 329W, on regional planning and development: electronic government, how much funding each regional development agency has provided to the regional equality and diversity partnership in each region. [222986]
Mr. McFadden: The following table shows RDAs' funding to regional equality and diversity partnerships in 2008-09.
| RDA | Funding in 2008-09 (£000) |
| (1) No plans to provide core funding for the respective regional equality and diversity partnerships in their regions in 2008-09. (2 )ONE to provide £80,000 to the North East Equality and Diversity Partnership. (3 )No plans to provide core funding for the respective regional equality and diversity partnerships in their regions in 2008-09. | |
No such single, legally constituted equality and diversity partnership exists within the East of England, East Midlands, London, the North West, South East or the South West.
Retail Trade: Competition
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with reference to the Government's response to the Competition Commission's inquiry into grocery retailing of 29 July 2008, what definition of consumer interest his Department will use when determining whether to establish an independent Ombudsman to oversee the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. [224279]
Mr. Thomas: The Competition Commission (CC) is seeking, under Section 159 of the Enterprise Act 2002, undertakings from the grocery retailers covered by the new groceries supply code of practice (GSCOP) to establish an ombudsman to monitor and enforce compliance with the GSCOP. If the CC is unsuccessful in establishing the Ombudsman within a reasonable period of time, the CC will formally ask BERR to take the necessary steps to set up an ombudsman. BERR would then carry out a full consultation before taking a decision on the way forward. At this stage BERR would not want to pre judge the range or type of issue that might be raised by stakeholders.
Small Businesses: Ethnic Groups
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of small businesses owned by black and ethnic minority people. [219045]
Mr. McFadden: The Department estimates there are around 280,000 small (0-49 employees) Minority Ethnic Group led businesses in the UK.
Minority Ethnic Group led businesses are where 50 per cent. or more of the partners or directors are from ethnic minority groups.
It is estimated that these businesses represent 6 per cent. of all UK small businesses.
It is not possible to report on the proportion of businesses run by black people or other minority ethnic groups separately to the overall estimate.
South East
Dr. Stoate: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much his Department spent on services in (a) Dartford Borough, (b) Kent Thameside, (c) the Thames Gateway, (d) Kent County Council area and (e) the South East region in each of the last five years, broken down by type of service. [222448]
Mr. McFadden: Information on the Department's spending by Region and service is published in the Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2007-08 Annex 8 which is lodged in the House. Expenditure is broken down by country and region for years 2002-03 to 2007-08 (Table 7), by Head of Population for years 2002-03 to 2007-08 (Table 8), and by identifiable expenditure on services by function, country and region for 2006-07.
Payments made to Kent County Council during the last five years were as follows:
Financial year 2004-05, £52,940.76 re-imbursement of salary costs, £2,519.38 conference room rental.
Financial year 2007-08, £1,100,190.98 waste electrical and electronic equipment grant.
No payments are recorded on the Department's system to either Dartford BC, Kent Thameside, or the Thames Gateway.
Any further breakdown would be at disproportionate cost.
BERR's spending in the South East includes funding to South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).
The following table shows SEEDA's expenditure for Kent as a whole and also, separately, cross-regional funding. This is all spending and not just on 'services'. It is not possible to show how much of this expenditure came from the BERR grant-in-aid.
To break down expenditure by each area requested would involve disproportionate effort.
Please note that EEDA and LDA also provide funding to the Thames Gateway.
| £ | ||||
| Kent( 1) | Cross-regional expenditure( 1,) ( 2) | South East region (This figure is SEEDA's total expenditure( 3) | BERR grant-in-aid to SEEDA | |
| (1) These figures for forecast expenditure have been taken from SEEDA's PMS system and are not audited and should be viewed as indicative only. (2). Cross Regional expenditure is expenditure by SEEDA that covers more than one county. This expenditure could include expenditure in Kent. (3) The figure provided is SEEDA's annual total expenditure as laid down in SEEDA's Annual Report and Accounts. (4) Please note that the figure for 2007-08 has been signed off by SEEDA's Finance department but they are awaiting final approval of the Annual Report and Accounts by the National Audit Office. | ||||
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