To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with reference to the Answer of 10 January 2008, Official Report, column 782W, on regional development agencies: South East Region, when the evaluation of the effects of the South East England Development Agency’s spending was completed; and if he will place a copy of the evaluation report in the Library. (253486)

The Government have commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an independent evaluation of the economic impact of RDAs. The evaluation of the impact of South East England Development Agency’s spending is incorporated in the report. The evaluation report has just been completed and I will place a copy in the Libraries of the House shortly.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 25 November 2008, Official Report, column 41W, on departmental expenditure limits (2008-09), for what reason there was a re-allocation of £2.5 million from the London Development Agency to the regional development agencies. (253487)

As part of the management of the “single pot” funding model, the regional development agencies (RDAs) and the London Development Agency (LDA) have the authority to agree “loans” between themselves, as a way of maximising the use of their overall budget allocation. This is often utilised to overcome issues around the timing of expenditure. Whilst there is no need to process such transactions between the RDAs generally (because they are all non voted), funds to the LDA are voted (because it is governed by the Greater London Authority) and any changes are, therefore, necessarily reflected in supplementary estimates.