Proof of Concept (POC ) and Design & Creative (D&C) loan funds

James Burke made this Freedom of Information request to One North East

The request was successful.

From: James Burke

3 December 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

This request under the FOI Act is in relation to the Proof of
Concept (POC ) and Design & Creative (D&C) loan funds that have
been transferred by North East Finance Ltd and NStar Fund
Management Ltd to Enterprise Development North East Ltd which is a
company that considers One North East to be the ultimate
controlling party.

For each fund I would be grateful if you could provide the
following:

- Total number of loans made
- Total value of loans made

- Number of loans that have been repaid in full and total value of
these repayments
- Number of loans that have been converted and where an equity
shareholding has been retained
- Total current value of equity shareholding in businesses based on
valuation when loan was converted
- Number of loans that have been closed or written off with no
repayment in full or conversion to equity shareholding retained

- Number of businesses that have had formal meetings with fund
managers
- Number of businesses that have completed a funding application
form
- Number of business applications that have been formally put
forward to fund investment panel(s)

- Amount of capital in each fund since transfer of funds to
Enterprise Development North East Ltd
- Amount of capital invested since transfer of funds to Enterprise
Development North East Ltd
- Number of businesses that have had formal meetings with fund
managers since transfer of funds to Enterprise Development North
East Ltd
- Number of businesses that have completed a funding application
form since transfer of funds to Enterprise Development North East
Ltd
- Number of business applications that have been formally put
forward to fund investment panel(s) since transfer of funds to
Enterprise Development North East Ltd

- Amount of capital remaining

I believe that this information should be readily to hand and look
forward to your reply.

Yours Faithfully,

James Burke

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James Burke left an annotation ( 4 December 2009)

Holding statement supplied by One North East as reply to this request: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/di...

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From: Jaymes Glew
One North East

24 December 2009

Attachment POC Final Response 241209.pdf
145K Download View as HTML

James

Please find attached ONE's final response to your FOI request.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Many thanks

Jaymes Glew
Legal Secretary

show quoted sections

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James Burke left an annotation (24 January 2010)

Meeting arranged with ONE on the 27th January to discuss/clarify/finalise FOI request.

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James Burke left an annotation (18 February 2010)

Awaiting additional documentation to close this FOI request following on from meeting with ONE on the 27th January.

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James Burke left an annotation ( 6 April 2010)

Additional information received, awaiting final closure meeting before publication.

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James Burke left an annotation (27 April 2010)

Following a meeting on 19th April with ONE a number of clarifications surrounding information provided remain. Further clarification is being sought.

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From: James Burke

11 May 2010

Dear Jaymes Glew,

Further to request by Nicola Barnett via email 10th May 2010 for
clarification on FOI requests that are long overdue and not
complete:

FOI response 24th December 2009 (based on commitments):
Amount of capital in DCF fund on transfer to EDNE 1st April 2009 -
£934,950
Amount of capital invested by EDNE - £795,003
Capital remaining - £148,947
Number of business that have had formal meetings - 72
Number of businesses that have completed an application form since
transfer of funds to EDNE - 28
Number of business applications formally put forward to Investment
Panel since transfer of funds to EDNE - 21

FOI response provided 22nd February 2010
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/31191153/DCF-2... and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31191174/POC-a...):
Amount of capital in DCF fund on transfer to EDNE 1st April 2009 -
£750,300
Amount of capital invested by EDNE - £750,300
Capital remaining - £0
Number of business that have had formal meetings - unknown
Number of businesses that have completed an application form since
transfer of funds to EDNE - unknown
Number of business applications formally put forward to Investment
Panel since transfer of funds to EDNE - unknown

FOI response provided 15 March 2010:
"For the avoidance of doubt I enclose a DCF table below that shows
the actual cash payments only and not commitments. Please note that
there has also been am amount set aside for the pilot Difference
Engine programme.
March 2009 - £1,327.500
December 2009 - £1,082,000
2010 - £215,000
Balance for Difference Engine - £175,500 to be spent during 2010"

Please clarify the discrepancies in the above financial figures (3
differing FOI responses) in a clear and unambiguous manner.

Please clarify the numbers relating to meetings and applications
and also clarify why numbers were known in December 2009 and were
subsequently not known on the 22nd February 2010.

Yours sincerely,

James Burke

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James Burke left an annotation (12 May 2010)

Copy of reply (provided to this FOI by mistake - http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/su...)

Nicola Barnett
One North East

11 May 2010

James

Thank you for your email.

I refer you to our letter of 15 March 2010 (specifically paragraph 3),
which directly addresses the questions you have raised.

I repeat the substance of that paragraph below for your benefit.

The initial response dated 24/12/09 stated that there was £943,950 left
to be invested from the Fund on transfer to EDNE on 1 April 2009. This
was based on a total Fund size of £2,653,650 with £1,709,700 `invested'.

In the response dated 15 March 2010, total investments on transfer to EDNE
were stated as £1,327,500. The difference between these figures is that
the £1,709,700 is the amount signed up as investments, but includes
amounts not released at that date. The £1,327,500 reflects cash
actually released for investments from the DCF bank account. Therefore
as at the date of transfer, there was an amount of £382,200 that had been
signed up as an investment (i.e. committed) but the cash was not
physically released.

Similarly the £795,003 (24/12/09 response) relates to new investments
signed up by EDNE, whereas the £1,082,000 and £215,000 referred to in
the 15 March response are the cash amounts released by EDNE.

The response that the Fund Manager prepared was based on amounts committed
in investment agreements, and the Agency response focused on cash
released.

Regarding the number of meetings and related information, the responses
reflected the difference between information held internally at One North
East and information held externally by the Fund.

Having restated our response to your repeat clarifications, we now
consider this matter - and the outstanding related FOI requests - to be
closed.

Kind regards

Nicola

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From: James Burke

7 September 2010

Dear Jaymes Glew,

The aim of this note is to provide a summary of the responses to
this FOI request.

The responses provided by the Design and Creative Fund (DCF) Fund
Manager regarding formal meetings with businesses, completed
application forms and applications put forward to investment panel
meetings is stated as “unknown” and therefore complete FOI
responses/clarifications are unavailable. The DCF Fund Manager, Jon
Bradford, was awarded the Difference Engine Project Management
services contract on the 19th November 2009 following a tender
process carried out by the North East Business Innovation Centre
(BIC) for the provision of Project Management services for the
Difference Engine programme that appears to have been carried out
in breach of the ONE North East Single Programme and European
Funding Procurement Handbook guidelines and which appears to be
eligible for “clawback” of £134,000 (see
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/su...).

The actual amounts of funds, allocated from the DCF, a fund Managed
by EDNE Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of One North East) to the
Difference Engine Programme (see
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/th...)
remains unclear and the apparent procurement irregularities and
several perceived conflicts of interest, appears to remain
unaddressed by One North East.

As a Section 14(1) refusal notice has been issued and upheld
following an internal review by One North East
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/su...)
it appears that I am unable to seek further clarifications.

Yours sincerely,

James Burke

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