Regional Development Agencies

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the regional development agencies in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09.

Ian Pearson
The RDAs expenditure in 2007-08 was £2,265 million and in 2008-09 expenditure is forecasted (subject to audit) at £2,179 million. This expenditure takes account of the cost of delivery for various programmes (e.g. Business Links) and of administration. These figures do not include EU programme monies associated with ERDF and RDPE.