The South West Industrial Development Board, along with similar Boards in other regions, was originally established at the time of the 1972 Industry Act with the principal purpose of advising the Secretary of State for Industry or his officials on major grant applications. This remains the main function of all the Regional Industrial Development Boards (RIDB), although they now advise their respective RDAs, to whom the Secretary of State has delegated responsibility for grants less than £2m.

Members of the Boards are experienced senior representatives of industry and commerce in the regions concerned. In all regions they review case papers put before them, and prepared by officials, dealing with applications for Selective Finance for Investment (SFI) above a set threshold (currently £250,000). The case papers appraise the applications against the criteria of the SFI scheme and the main role of the RIDBs is to provide detailed advice on the commercial issues which are normally the key factors in a decision whether or not to offer grant.  
 
The views of Board members are invaluable in forming a judgement on, for example, such matters as whether a company is likely to meet its sales forecasts, whether a particular market strategy is likely to be successful, whether a company's argument as to why it needs grant and how much is plausible, and many other essential commercial features of an application. This informed private sector advice allows the RDA to target its resources on projects which genuinely need grant to go ahead and are likely to provide permanent high value employment and other benefits for the region. 
 
The current members of the South West Industrial Development Board are as follows:

SWIDB Register of Board Members Financial and Business Interests 2008 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 56.79kb)  
 
Details of the activities of all the Regional Industrial Development Boards are contained in the Industrial Development Act Annual Report 2006-2007 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 413.17kb). 
 
The South West Industrial Development Board has also produced a publication scheme drawn up under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.