To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many companies which have received funding from the Scottish Development Agency have become insolvent.

Information readily available from the records of the former Scottish Development Agency is limited to cases where funding was provided in the form of investment assistance. It is available for cases where the amount provided exceeded £50,000 in the years before 1986–87; but is available for all cases for the financial years 1986–87 to 1990–91. On that basis, the number of companies is 1,028, of which 176 are known to have gone into receivership or liquidation, or to have suffered sequestration.