Chamber and committees

The administration of the ScottishEnterprise Business Gateway is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. Ihave therefore asked Scottish Enterprise’s chief executive to reply to you direct.

In 1999, First Choice RetailLtd accepted a Regional Selective Assistance offer of £250,000 for a project whichaimed to create 183 jobs and safeguard five. All of the grant was paid. When thefinal instalment was made the company had created 165 jobs, safeguarded a furtherfive and also had made offers of employment to a further 16. The company did notfully meet its obligations under the terms of the grant agreement. However, in viewof the length of time jobs had been in place and the low grant paid per job, nogrant was recovered.

In addition, the company were given £292,186 from Scottish EnterpriseAyrshire. Conditions applied to the assistance are an operational matter for ScottishEnterprise Ayrshire.

There is no information held centrally on the number of jobs losses in Scotland. However, it is possible to look at the net changein jobs over time. The following table shows the net change in employee jobs inScotland in each year since 1999.

Table 1 Annual Change in theLevel of Employee Jobs, 2000-05

Year	Annual Change
1999-2000	67,300
2000-01	65,500
2001-02	-20,300
2002-03	27,500
2003-04	33,000
2004-05	51,500

Source:Annual Business Inquiry (ABI).

Notes:

1. The dataare rounded to the nearest hundred.

2. ABI dataare workplace based.

Lexmark International(Scotland) Ltd accepted three offers of regional selective assistance (RSA). In1995 and 1998 it accepted offers of £5.6 million and £5.9 million that helpedcreate 353 and 562 new jobs respectively. Both of theses grants were paid infull and the company met its obligations under the terms of the agreements. Nogrant was recovered.

In 2002, the companyaccepted an RSA offer of £900,000 for a project that planned to safeguard 200jobs. It received £250,000 of the grant. Following closure of the facility, the Executive recovered this entire proportion of the grant.

In addition, ScottishEnterprise Fife provided Lexmark with a total of £727,142 during the period1996 to 2005. Conditions relating to these grants are an operational matter forScottish Enterprise Fife.

There is no information held centrally on the number of jobs created in Scotland. However, it ispossible to look at the net change in jobs over time and for this information Irefer the member to the answer to question S2W-31932 on 8 March 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The following table showsthe proportion of employees within each local authority area who are consideredlow paid as defined in the answer to question S2W-29903 on 16 February 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Table 1 Proportion of Employeeswho are Low Paid by Local Authority Area

Local Authority	Proportion
Aberdeen City	24.9%
Aberdeenshire	26.4%
Angus	22.9%
Argyll and Bute	23.1%
Scottish Borders	26.9%
Clackmannanshire	28.8%
Dumfries and Galloway	29.7%
Dundee City	25.8%
East Ayrshire	23.7%
East Dunbartonshire	18.4%
East Lothian	18.1%
East Renfrewshire	15.8%
Edinburgh, City of	17.2%
Falkirk	22.9%
Fife	21.2%
Glasgow City	25.2%
Highland	28.1%
Inverclyde	26.7%
Midlothian	18.6%
Moray	26.6%
North Ayrshire	22.7%
North Lanarkshire	22.3%
Orkney Islands	19.9%
Perth and Kinross	20.9%
Renfrewshire	22.5%
Shetland Islands	15.5%
South Ayrshire	24.3%
South Lanarkshire	18.8%
Stirling	23.3%
West Dunbartonshire	26.9%
West Lothian	19.8%
Western Isles	21.4%

Source:Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

1. Theestimates are based on the hourly pay excluding overtime and shift premiumpayments.

2. The estimates are based on a sample survey, and as such, are subject tosampling error.

In 2000, TUI (UK) Ltd,Thomson Holidays’ parent company, accepted a regional selective assistancegrant of £1.4 million for a project that planned to create 600 new jobs. All of the grant was paid, and when the final instalment was made in March 2005 thecompany had created 618 jobs.

Following the announcementof the company’s intention to close the business in August 2006, the Executiverecovered £200,000 of the grant.

In addition, the company received£550,465 in grants from Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. Conditions relating tothese grants are an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise Glasgow.

No public money has beenprovided to Chunghwa Telecom and no jobs have been promised or created.

In 1999, Simclar (Ayrshire)Ltd accepted an RSA offer of £1.5 million for a project that planned tosafeguard 160 jobs. The grant was paid in full. To date, none of the grant hasbeen recovered but the Executive has lodged a claim with the administrators inrespect of the RSA paid.

SimclarInternational Ltd has received two RSA grants for projects at its Dunfermlinefacility, both dating back to the 1990s. It received £600,000 for a project tocreate 150 new jobs (206 actually created) and a further £1.3 million for aproject that safeguarded 480 jobs. The company fully met all its obligationsunder the terms of the grant agreement and no grant was recovered.

ScottishEnterprise Ayrshire has paid £113,275 in grants to Simclar (Ayrshire) Ltd. Nonew jobs were linked to these grants and there has been no claw back.

Scottish Enterprise Fifeassistance in respect of Simclar’s Dunfermline facility has amounted to £656,537. Again, no new jobs were linked to these grants and there hasbeen no claw back.

The information requested isnot held by the Scottish Executive. Details surrounding the Prime Minister’s engagementsare a matter for his office.