The Government has no idea how many redundancies abolition of England's regional development agencies will cause, Lords business minister Baroness Wilcox has admitted.
Lord Liddle asked what assessment the Government has made for England as a whole, and for Cumbria, of how many redundancies RDA abolition will cause over the next 18 months.
He asked for the Government's assessment of the RDAs' own redundancies and those caused by the end of support to local authorities, enterprise agencies, innovation centres, business parks, science parks, training providers, tourist providers and arts and sports sponsorship.
"No such assessment has been made," was the comprehensive reply.
Lord Liddle also asked what instructions the agencies have received about expenditure beyond that committed before their abolition was announced in June.
Baroness Wilcox said RDAs wanting to make any new commitment would have to satisfy her Department they could remain within their budgets.
DBIS would have to be satisfied they could still meet the cuts demanded this year and no expenditure would be incurred in 2011-2.
"DBIS and HM Treasury are prepared to consider exceptional cases for new commitments in line with the Government's core objectives where they give rise to expenditure in 2011-2 or later years (either directly or indirectly)," she said.
"These will need to be considered in light of the current financial constraints."
