My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Industry and the Regions (Margaret Hodge) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I have today laid before Parliament the annual reports and accounts for 2005-06 for the eight regional development agencies (RDAs) outside London. Copies have been placed in the House Library.

The annual report and accounts for London are presented to the Lord Mayor rather than before Parliament. I shall provide a copy to the House of Commons Library when these are available.

The Government welcome the contribution that the RDAs have made during this year to driving forward economic development in their respective regions.

Also published today are the RDAs' reported outputs for 2005-06. These results are evidence that the RDAs continue to play a valuable role in improving the economic performance of the English regions; through working with their partners, the RDAs are making a real difference to the individual regional economies concerned. The figures cover the creation and safeguarding of jobs, the number of people helped to get a job, the amount of brownfield land brought back into use, the number of businesses added to the regional economies, the number of businesses helped to improve their performance, the number of learning opportunities created and the amount of private sector investment attracted benefiting deprived areas, all as a result of RDA activity.

Press releases on the outputs have been issued in each region. Copies of the output results have been placed in the House Library, and are available on the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/regional/regional-dev-agencies/index.html.