Regional Development Agencies: Brussels

Mr. Pickles
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which regional development agencies have offices in Brussels; and how much they paid towards each of the offices in each of the last five years.

Mr. Timms
No RDAs have dedicated offices in Brussels. However, all RDAs make a contribution to European Regional Representation Offices, which are based in Brussels. These offices are run in partnership with other regional stakeholders such as local authorities, and other public and private sector organisations. Full details are given in the following table.

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|UK Regional Representational Offices in Brussels                                                  |2002-03|2003-04|2004-05|2005-06|2006-07|
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|West Midlands in Europe Brussels Office                                                           |200    |391    |445    |377    |378    |
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|East of England European Office                                                                   |49     |37     |58     |59     |63     |
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|East Midlands European Office                                                                     |50     |58     |197    |209    |315    |
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|London European Office1                                                                           |0      |100    |50     |50     |50     |
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|North West Brussels Office                                                                        |43     |56     |55     |53     |58     |
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|North East of England Brussels Office                                                             |51     |53     |56     |93     |63     |
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|South East of England Brussels Office                                                             |58     |61     |62     |53     |65     |
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|South West UK Brussels Office                                                                     |188    |192    |197    |172    |178    |
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|Yorkshire2 Europe                                                                                 |0      |0      |0      |60     |340    |
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|1 Office was not set up in 2002-03.2 Yorkshire Forward did not provide any funding before 2005-06.|       |       |       |       |       |
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