To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will give the date of incorporation and the operational commencement date for the local enterprise company for Argyll, Arran and the Cumbraes;(2) if he will list

The local enterprise company for Argyll, Bute, Arran and the Cumbraes was incorporated on 6 August 1990; the remainder of the information requested about incorporation dates is set out in the table.

Local enterprise company	Date of incorporation
Borders	30 July 1990
Central	25 May 1990
Grampian	16 May 1989
Lanarkshire	27 April 1990
Lothian	30 April 1990
Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey1	1 March 1990
Tayside	22 August 1990
1 Straddles the Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise boundaries.

Operational commencement is not readily linked to a single date. Local enterprise companies' operations have commenced in all cases, with the business planning process, and they are increasingly involved in operational decisions both about individual projects and about matters such as the agreement of new contracts with training providers. The next stage will be for detailed operational contracts to be awarded to companies by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. In general, these contracts will be awarded over the next few weeks and will result in local enterprise companies becoming fully operational on 1 April, the same date as Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise take over full operational responsibility from their predecessor bodies.