Adam Price
Plaid Cymru, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will provide a regional breakdown of innovation funding in the UK.
Patricia Hewitt
Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry
My Department's innovation programme expenditure is primarily providing support to industry UK-wide. In the financial year 2001–02, £340 million was allocated to this support. It would be a disproportionate cost to ascertain the regional breakdown of this expenditure. Moreover in many instances mapping the immediate recipient of the support would not give a reliable guide to the ultimate distribution of the benefit.
The only funding currently allocated by my Department on a regional basis that contributes to the DTI's innovation agenda is the Regional Innovation Fund (RIF), which was established on
RIF provides a funding stream to the nine English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) to enable them to support regional competitiveness, innovation and enterprise, and to support cluster development and business incubation in their regions. A breakdown of my Department's 2001–02 RIF allocation of £54.1 million to the RDAs is as follows:
| RDA | £ million |
|---|---|
| One North East | 8.9 |
| North West Development Agency | 7.4 |
| Yorkshire Forward | 10.0 |
| East Midlands Development Agency (emda) | 4.3 |
| Advantage West Midlands | 6.3 |
| East of England Development Agency | 3.5 |
| SEEDA | 3.2 |
| South West of England Regional Development Agency | 4.7 |
| London Development Agency | 5.8 |
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