Local Enterprise Companies

Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the inaugural business plan of local enterprise companies will be made public by him.

Mr. Lang
As indicated in paragraph 7.2 of the Scottish Enterprise handbook, local enterprise companies themselves will normally be required to publish a summary of their annual business plan.

Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland which components of the Training Agency's budget in Scotland will be allocated to local enterprise companies; and how much is currently spent on each of these schemes.

Mr. Lang
Total planned expenditure in Scotland in 1990–91 on each of the Training Agency budget components which will partly or wholly be delivered by local enterprise companies is shown in the table: ------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                          |
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|Youth training (including Compacts and Community Industry)|
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|Employment training                                       |
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|Business growth training                                  |
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|Enterprise allowance scheme                               |
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|Training and education support programmes                 |
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|Marketing, advertising and publicity                      |
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|Administrative costs                                      |
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Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what aspects of contracts awarded to local enterprise companies will be open to the public.

Mr. Lang
Decisions on the extent to which it would be appropriate to make public aspects of contracts made between local enterprise companies and the Training Agency, the Scottish Development Agency, the Highlands and Islands Development Board, Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise (as the case may be) will be taken in the light of the structure eventually adopted for such contracts. It may be that some material associated with individual contracts will be commercial in confidence.

Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what information he proposes to make public about how much money is allocated to each local enterprise company; and for what purposes.

Mr. Lang
Announcements on allocations will be a matter for the relevant funding body (Scottish Development Development Board, Training Agency, Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise as the case may be). Local enterprise companies will be required to publish accounts showing the sources and application of their funds.

Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when he expects specific budget allocations to be made to local enterprise companies.

Mr. Lang
A specific budget allocation to each local enterprise company will be made by the Training Agency and the Scottish Development Agency or the Highlands and Islands Development Board (as the case may be) once that local enterprise company's business plan has been approved and when an operating contract is awarded to the company.