To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the role of social partners in the implementation of European structural funds in the United Kingdom. [10380]

The Government see the advantages of a wider social partnership, bringing employers' and trade union representatives into local European structural funds partnerships. We will expect the social partners to make a real contribution to the programmes, as existing partners do. The precise way in which they participate will be for each monitoring committee to determine locally.