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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what funding was allocated for small business support under the Smart scheme from the time of its inception to its closure; and how much of this money was distributed directly to grant recipients. [145513] Nigel Griffiths: Following a small pilot in 1986, the full Smart scheme was launched in 1988. Initially, there was no separately identifiable funding allocation for the scheme within the larger "Innovation Budget" which provided funds for several other schemes. Smart originally operated as a competition with a fixed number of "Stage 1", or feasibility, awards but a variable number of "Stage 2", or development, awards. The SPUR scheme was introduced in 1991 and merged with Smart in 1997. Since that time there has been a separate provision for the expanded Smart. Expenditure on Smart will occur for several years yet as existing projects progress. Provision, where separately identified, and expenditure were as follows: £ million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Financial year Expenditure Plans or Provision where Expenditure1 separately identified 1 1988-89 -- 3.0 1989-90 -- 5.0 1990-91 -- 9.0 1991-92 -- 12.3 1992-93 -- 18.0 1993-94 -- 21.5 1994-95 21.6 21.9 1995-96 16.5 20.1 1996-97 -- 20.5 1997-98 30.0 25.8 1998--99 30.0 24.9 1999-2000 32.1 26.5 2000-01 35.9 27.3 2001-02 27 23.7 2002-03 27 32.1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Including SPUR from 1991.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

417 c84-5W; 145513

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Expenditure Grants Small businesses SMART awards

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk