UK Parliament / Open data

Industry and Exports (Financial Support) Bill

I am grateful to the Minister, not least for being generous in giving way. I return to my original point. He highlighted the fact that the annual report, for example, showed a certain balance of schemes, and now events have changed. He is right, and we understand that that will continue to be the case. It seems to me that a logical pattern would be that when the Government need to come forward with a request for an additional increase over and above the existing limit, that is the obvious moment at which we in the House would benefit from being able to see the current snapshot of the balance. I am slightly disappointed that the Minister does not have the figures on the balance between loans and grants, but I wonder whether he will ensure that at least some information can be provided to Members. We will not have the chance to consider this further, as this is the last day on which we will have the opportunity to discuss the Bill. Given the fact that Ministers cited the balance between grants and loans as the principal reason for change, it would be helpful if we could at least have the evidence of what the current balance is and what the Government's expectation of change is. Does the Minister accept that, and will he undertake to provide it?
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
491 c159 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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