AQW 1803/11-15

Mr Jim Allister KC
Traditional Unionist Voice
North Antrim

Tabled Date: 09/09/2011
Answered On Date: 28/09/2011
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (i) how many new jobs have been created by Invest NI in each constituency in each of the last five years; (ii) of those how many still exist; and (iii) how many potential foreign investors visited each constituency over the same period and what were the outcomes from the visits.

Answer:

Table 1 shows (i) the number of jobs expected to be created, which are described as ‘Jobs Promoted’, by investors that had an offer of assistance approved by Invest NI between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2011, broken down by Parliamentary Constituency Area (PCA). This represents the number of jobs that investors plan to create over the lifetime of assisted projects.

The geographic location of projects is determined by those businesses which bring forward projects suitable for Invest NI assistance and are based on their specific requirements. It is also not possible to align visits with specific investment. A company may visit any number of times before investing, or indeed choose not to invest.

Table 1: Invest NI Jobs Promoted by PCA (2006-07 to 2010-11)

PCA	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	Total
BELFAST EAST	678	304	1,089	396	925	3,392
BELFAST NORTH	91	51	117	472	66	797
BELFAST SOUTH	966	527	358	642	703	3,196
BELFAST WEST	58	178	92	46	5	379
EAST ANTRIM	69	284	42	53	222	670
EAST LONDONDERRY	56	389	58	73	63	639
FERMANAGH AND SOUTH TYRONE	722	250	397	149	198	1,716
FOYLE	875	994	217	265	365	2,716
LAGAN VALLEY	143	107	102	186	251	789
MID ULSTER	270	398	356	228	177	1,429
NEWRY AND ARMAGH	424	427	928	135	613	2,527
NORTH ANTRIM	246	95	191	42	106	680
NORTH DOWN	255	60	91	172	25	603
SOUTH ANTRIM	48	65	212	134	715	1,174
SOUTH DOWN	93	61	569	148	115	986
STRANGFORD	86	61	134	137	33	451
UPPER BANN	147	102	269	713	116	1,347
WEST TYRONE	116	199	71	106	70	561
NOT YET LOCATED	-	-	-	20	545	565
TOTAL	5,343	4,552	5,293	4,113	5,312	24,612

Note: Invest NI revises performance data on a regular basis to ensure that it reflects implemented projects; therefore, the data above may differ to previously published information.

In addition, Invest NI supported over 8,500 new jobs indirectly through its Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) – formerly the Start A Business Programme. Table 2 shows the breakdown of these jobs across PCAs.

Table 2: Invest NI estimated number of jobs indirectly supported through the Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) by PCA (2006-07 to 2010-11)

PCA	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	Total
BELFAST EAST	59	84	68	58	92	362
BELFAST NORTH	58	77	63	78	108	383
BELFAST SOUTH	81	86	73	76	120	436
BELFAST WEST	81	85	61	62	78	368
EAST ANTRIM	104	97	65	56	68	389
EAST LONDONDERRY	120	149	99	87	139	595
FERMANAGH AND SOUTH TYRONE	184	202	143	124	148	800
FOYLE	125	164	97	74	84	545
LAGAN VALLEY	81	78	53	58	94	364
MID ULSTER	141	166	105	124	181	718
NEWRY AND ARMAGH	112	136	86	81	116	532
NORTH ANTRIM	122	142	81	52	81	477
NORTH DOWN	69	56	50	34	69	278
SOUTH ANTRIM	80	76	57	53	88	355
SOUTH DOWN	102	132	79	79	105	497
STRANGFORD	80	72	47	42	76	317
UPPER BANN	85	108	93	67	101	454
WEST TYRONE	121	148	109	111	134	623
TOTAL	1,806	2,058	1,431	1,318	1,881	8,494

NOTES:

10 jobs could not be allocated at PCA level.

2. These figures are based on an estimate of jobs created by an individual EDP offer. This estimation process is derived from an independent evaluation of the programme.

Individual projects supported, and the associated job creation, may take up to 5 years to be fully implemented. Whilst individual projects are monitored on an ongoing basis, information on the number of jobs in existence at a particular point in time is not centrally collated and the costs in doing so would be disproportionate.

Table 3 below shows the number of visits by potential foreign investors to each PCA during the period under review.

Table 3: Number of Visits by Potential Foreign Investors by PCA

(2006-07 to 2010-11)

PCA	2006-07	2007-08	*2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
BELFAST EAST	42	36	85	34	47
BELFAST NORTH	18	9	13	17	22
BELFAST SOUTH	46	51	96	48	54
BELFAST WEST	15	6	13	12	7
EAST ANTRIM	14	6	4	9	19
EAST LONDONDERRY	0	3	2	5	2
FERMANAGH & SOUTH TYRONE	0	0	0	0	0**
FOYLE	15	4	7	13	10
LAGAN VALLEY	0	1	45	3	7
MID ULSTER	4	0	4	0	0
NEWRY & ARMAGH	5	3	3	1	6
NORTH ANTRIM	0	0	0	0	2
NORTH DOWN	1	0	44	5	2
SOUTH ANTRIM	5	5	17	4	2
SOUTH DOWN	2	0	1	1	0
STRANGFORD	0	0	1	2	1
UPPER BANN	6	4	7	0	0
WEST TYRONE	5	1	2	0	0
TOTAL	178	129	344	154	181

* Visit figures for 2008-09 include visits associated with the USNI Investment Conference.

** It should be noted that Invest NI assisted the administrators in their management of the sale of Quinn Insurance. The sales process included multiple visits to Fermanagh and South Tyrone PCA in 2010-11 by international companies who were considering submitting a bid. These visits are not represented in the above figures.

Securing an inward investment may span a considerable period (18 to 24 months) and is the result of many factors which may, or may not, include visits to different locations. There is often a further time lag between securing an investment and jobs ultimately being created. It should be noted that the number of jobs promoted in Table 1 includes all jobs promoted by Invest NI. This includes both new and repeat indigenous investors, new inward investors and reinvestments by existing inward investors.

It is therefore not possible to directly link the number of visits in Table 3 to the number of jobs in Table 1.