Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential economic merits of Local Enterprise Partnerships for (a) Hinckley, (b) Bosworth constituency and (c) the East Midlands.

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) play an important role in providing a business voice to inform investment decisions and drive economic growth. The Leicester and Leicestershire LEP has supported Hinckley and Bosworth through a total of £13.1m of Local Growth Funds since 2014. This has included:

• £9.5m for the MIRA Technology Institute – training 2,500 learners per annum in advanced manufacturing and automotive technologies for the future.

• £3.6m for the Local Sustainable Transport Fund Rd 2 (Hinckley) - introducing 13 miles of new cycle paths and walking routes, thereby reducing journey times on the highway network.

There are 3 LEPs in the East Midlands: Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (D2N2); Leicester and Leicestershire; and Greater Lincolnshire. Through these LEPs, the Government has invested £539m in projects to create infrastructure, drive job creation, and accelerate skills development.