Holyrood’s Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee is looking for a wide range of views from businesses that have received ‘Regional Selective Assistance’ (RSA) or other financial support from Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise over the past ten years.
RSA is Scotland’s main national scheme of financial assistance to industry and has existed since 1970. It is managed and delivered by Scottish Enterprise and offers discretionary grants with the aim of creating and safeguarding jobs.
The Committee is also looking to hear from businesses who have been unsuccessful in their application to RSA or have received financial assistance from another body.
Committee Convener, Gordon Lindhurst MSP (above) said: “Over the last ten years over 960 projects have received £337 million of RSA investment. This has represented a significant attempt to address regional disparities across Scotland.
“The Committee wants to gain an understanding of impact these grants have had and whether grant support could be improved, and I urge businesses who have engaged with this scheme to tell us about their experiences.”
The outcome from this exercise is expected to feed into the upcoming Scottish Government budget plans and policy development.
The key areas that the Committee hopes to find answers to are:
- Does RSA, and other grants, represent good value for money?
- Could the £18 million to £34 million spent each year on RSA be better used supporting Scotland’s businesses in other ways?
- To what extent does Regional Selective Assistance support the Scottish Government’s economic goals, as set out in its Economic Strategy and National Performance Framework?
- How do RSA, and other grants, contribute to “inclusive economic growth”?
- How do the enterprise agencies measure the impact of RSA? Views on how RSA and other financial support packages are evaluated by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
- How well do RSA and other grants interact with other SE and HIE interventions?
- Views on the eligibility criteria, application and approval process;
- Should RSA change, and if so, how?
- What due diligence and accountability processes are followed by the enterprise agencies?
- What progress has been made towards introducing more conditionality? Whether more conditionality should be applied to RSA funding in addition to that announced over the past year.
- How successful is the claw-back process when investments fail?
Businesses are encouraged to complete a short questionnaire which aims to capture the experiences and views of successful, and unsuccessful, recipients of RSA and other grants. The questionnaire can be found here
Alternatively, you can respond to the call for views which can be found here
The deadline for submitting views is Friday 16th August 2019.
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