To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of foreign direct investment into the UK was (a) in the electricity generation sector and (b) in Wales in the last 12 months; and how many of the companies making such investment received allocations from the UK Innovation Investment Fund. (314191)

Table 5.3 of the Office for National Statistics publication MA4 gave the flow of foreign direct investment into the United Kingdom in electricity, gas and water as £12.35 billion in 2007, about 13 per cent. of the total that year. These figures are due to be revised when estimates for 2008 are published on Thursday 4 February.

The ONS does not subdivide its foreign direct investment statistics between different parts of the UK. The Welsh Assembly Government commissioned an Empirical Investigation of Foreign Direct Investment in Wales from the University of Wales Swansea, and this can be read at:

http://wales.gov.uk/docs//dfm/research/090701foreign directinvestmenten.pdf

None of these businesses have received funding from UK Innovation Investment Fund (UKIIF). We expect UKIIF to begin investing in technology based businesses during the first quarter of 2010.