asked the Secretary of State for Industry what was the number of industrial development certificates applied for in the non-development areas of the United Kingdom in each year from 1970 to 1975, indicating the respective numbers of industrial development certificates granted and refused.

The following table covers schemes of all sizes in all parts of the United Kingdom outside the development areas and special development areas and Northern Ireland:

	Industrial Development Certificates
	Issued	Refused
	No.	No.
1970	4,954	194
1971	2,482	112
1972	2,342	53
1973	2,275	88
1974	1,837	65
1975 Jan./Nov.	1,660	28

NOTE. From 1st September 1974, the IDC control ceased to apply to parts of Scotland and Wales which had been newly designated as development areas. The IDC exemption limits were raised in December 1970 and July 1972 and lowered in September 1974.

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish in the Official Report figures showing the number of industrial development certificates granted and the number of industrial development certificate requests refused in the West Midlands region during each of the last five complete years for which this information is available.

The following table relates to schemes of all sizes:

	Industrial Development Certificates
	Issued	Refused
	No.	No.
1971	468	29
1972	374	11
1973	258	12
1974	202	11
1975	277	7

NOTE. IDC exemption limits were raised in July 1972 and lowered in September 1974.

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he has made any estimate of the number of firms which established operations in Scotland as a result of refusal of industrial development certificates in each year from 1970 to 1975; and what is the number of instances in which such operations in Scotland arising from industrial development certificate refusals between 1970 and 1973 have subsequently been discontinued.

Information of this kind is not collected on a regular basis. However, information available about manufacturing establishments that opened in Scotland between 1966 and 1972, and still in existence at the end of 1972, shows that out of 172 establishments with attributable non-Scottish origins, 123 had links with England.