To ask the Scottish Executive how much state aid has been made available to Ferguson’s Shipbuilders Ltd in each year since 1999, showing what the aid was for in each case.

Since 1999 Ferguson shipbuilders has been in receipt of a total of £4,338,508 assistance from the Shipbuilding Intervention Fund administered by the DTI. HM Customs and Excise also provided assistance at 2% of contract value under the shipbuilder’s relief fund during this period. A further £92,946.80 direct grant state aid came from Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire and Inverclyde council, plus the company benefited from national training programmes support for initiatives started prior to 1999. Other than the Shipbuilding Intervention Fund and Shipbuilders Relief Assistance, all of this aid has been in support of training delivery including manual skills, safety, quality and change management programmes. Support has been as follows:

Shipbuilding Intervention Fund

1999 - £1,597,802

2000 - £1,274,304

2001 - £1,266,790

2002 - £132,922

2003 - £66,690

SE Renfrewshire:

1999 - £8,000

2000 - NIL

2001 - £23,095

2002 - £5,580

2003 - £34,373.7

2004 - £7,000

2005 - £3,648.1

Inverclyde council:

2000 - £3,250

2001 - £3,000

2003 - £5,000 (not yet drawn)

A total £147,316 has been also been provided through assistance to training providers for four-year national training programmes with start dates from 1996 to 2000. The benefits from these programmes have been seen by Ferguson beyond 1999. Information on annual support supplied to national training programmes is not held centrally by Scottish Enterprise - although some programmes are currently still in progress. It is therefore not possible to provide an annual breakdown of this total of £147,316.