Has the Metro Mayor given any aid to his company with grants and funding?

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Liverpool City Region Combined Authority,
Asif Hamid, chair of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise

1/ Please supply any data or past records on Mr. Asif Hamid of the Contact Company, with regards to any funding and grants awarded to him and his company.

2/ Has the Metro Mayor given any aid to his company with grants and funding?
3/ Does Mr. Asif Hamid receive any payments for acting as Chair?
4/ In the city of Liverpool how many jobs has his company created in the past six years?

Yours faithfully,

Ms. Williams

FOI CA, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Dear Ms. Williams

RSN22045

Thank you for your email to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and we will aim to provide a response within twenty working days.

Please note that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Information Commissioner’s Office has acknowledged that resources may be diverted away from functions such as responding to information requests to ensure that other services can still be delivered. This may mean that a response is provided outside of the stautory timeframe. Your patience is appreciated at this extraordinary time.

If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact me. Please quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Henderson

Senior Information Management Officer | LCRCA | Mann Island, PO Box 1976, Liverpool, L69 3HN
Office: 0151 330 1679 | Email: [Liverpool City Region Combined Authority request email]

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

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FOI CA, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Dear Ms. Williams

RSN22045

Thank you for your recent request made under the Freedom of Information Act. Please find the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s response below.

1.Please supply any data or past records on Mr. Asif Hamid of the Contact Company, with regards to any funding and grants awarded to him and his company.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has not provided funding or grants to either Mr Hamid or The Contact Company, and therefore has no recorded information to provide to you in response to this question.

We note that you have also submitted this request to the Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), who are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Due to the close working relationship between the Combined Authority and the LEP, we can advise that the LEP was the accountable body for the Business Growth Grant Programme in 2012.

The LEP secured £15m from Government to operate the Business Growth Grant and contracted the City Region’s 6 Local Authorities were to appraise and award grants and monitor their performance.

The Contact Company was awarded £1m after appraisal from Wirral Council.

At no point was the LEP Board or its members, including Mr. Hamid, involved in decision making as to allocation of funds, appraisal of applications or awards of grant. This rested entirely with each Local Authority on the basis of a thorough evaluation of the project and provided the project met the scheme criteria, state aid and value for money requirements. The process was overseen by Government.

The application for £1m funding from The Contract Company followed this process. After full appraisal and due diligence by Wirral Council, who brought the project forward, the grant was awarded by Wirral Council in 2014.

For further information on this grant we would recommend contacting Wirral Council.

2.Has the Metro Mayor given any aid to his company with grants and funding?

No

3.Does Mr. Asif Hamid receive any payments for acting as Chair of the Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership?

Members of the Local Enterprise Partnership board, including Mr Hamid, do not receive any payments for fulfilling their roles.

4. In the city of Liverpool how many jobs has his company created in the past six years?

The Combined Authority does not hold this information.

I trust that this information is of interest to you.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review, which should be addressed to:
Jill Coule
Chief Legal Officer / Monitoring Officer
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
[email address]

If you are not content with the result of your internal review, you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, whose address is
The Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk

Andy Henderson

Senior Information Management Officer | LCRCA | Mann Island, PO Box 1976, Liverpool, L69 3HN
Office: 0151 330 1679 | Email: [Liverpool City Region Combined Authority request email]

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

The information supplied continues to be protected by copyright. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study and non-commercial research and for any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can also be used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example, commercial publication would require the permission of the copyright holder.

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