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30 Jun 2003 : Column 31W—continued
Regional Anthems
14. Mr. Gordon Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with regional arts organisations concerning regional anthems as a way of promoting the Government's vision of regional government in England. [122091]
Estelle Morris: No such discussions have taken place.
Sports Facilities (Rural Schools)
15. Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on public sports facilities provided through schools in rural areas. [122092]
Mr. Caborn: The Government is committed to improving access to sport for all, wherever they live. We are investing over £ ½ billion in England alone by way of the New Opportunities Fund PE and Sport programme, through which all LEAs have received funds for new build and refurbishment schools projects. Preference is being given to those proposals with a public and community aspect.
Sporting/Cultural Activities (West Midlands)
16. Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how the Government plans to encourage (a) sporting and (b) cultural activities in the west Midlands. [122093]
Mr. Caborn: The Government are committed to promoting increased access and participation in both sport and cultural activity throughout the country, including the west Midlands. The region has and will continue to benefit from funding through a number of sports and cultural funding programmes.
Community Sports Facilities
18. Laura Moffatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of collaborative initiatives which deliver community sporting facilities on school sites. [122095]
Mr. Caborn: The New Opportunities Fund will be evaluating the success of schemes under the PE and sport programme up until 2008—three years after the deadline for spending funds secured through the programme. A sample of schemes being completed
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under the space for sport and arts initiative—all of which will be complete by March 2004—will be studied to establish the impact of new facilities built.
BBC Licence Fee
19. Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the future of the BBC licence fee. [122096]
Tessa Jowell: The Government's intention is that the television licence fee will remain as the main source of BBC funding at least until the expiry of the BBC's current Royal Charter at the end of 2006. The subsequent funding arrangements will need to be considered as part of BBC Charter review.
Dorrington Recreation Association
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when Sport England will issue a grant to Dorrington Recreation Association to support their application for funding a new hard play area. [121861]
Mr. Caborn: The responsibility for Lottery awards rests with the independent distributing bodies. Sport England, as with all distributing bodies, makes its funding decisions independently of Government.
Sport England's review of its operations, business objectives and Lottery-funded programmes is being carried out as part of its modernisation and restructuring programme. I understand that Sport England's Council hopes to make decisions on outstanding applications soon.
Gaming Laws
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what organisations and individuals she has consulted in respect of the Government's proposed changes to the gaming laws.[R] [122569]
Mr. Caborn: When we published the report of the Gambling Review Body in July 2001, we invited public comments on its proposals. We received many responses and took them all into account when preparing our response to the report, which we published in March 2002 as Cm 5397. Appendix E to Cm 5397 lists all those who participated in the consultation. Since then we have regularly consulted the main stakeholders, including
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gambling industry bodies, local authorities, law enforcement bodies, churches and bodies concerned with the prevention and treatment of problem gambling.
Greyhound Racing
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many greyhounds were bred for racing in the UK in each of the past five years; how many made it to the tracks each year; and what information she has on the greyhounds that did not make it to the tracks. [122265]
Mr. Caborn: The information available from the British Greyhound Racing Board (BGRB), the governing body for 31 of the 51 licensed greyhound tracks in this country; shows that the number of British bred greyhounds for each of the last five years as: 4,278 (1998); 3,984; 4,206 (2000); 4,446 (2001); and 5,286 (2002).
The following figures detail the number of British bred greyhounds registered with the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC), the regulatory body for these 31 tracks, to race in each of the last five years, 2,404 (1999); 2,265 (1999); 2,482 (2000); 2,250 (2001); and 2,632 (2002).
Information is not held centrally and is not readily available about numbers of unraced greyhounds or greyhounds racing at the 20 independent tracks.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the bookmaking industry has taken in each of the last five years from betting on greyhound racing; and how much of this money was spent on retirement provision for greyhounds. [122275]
Mr. Caborn: The British Greyhound Racing Board (BGRB), the governing body for 31 of the 51 licensed greyhound tracks in this country, has supplied figures estimating the level of bookmaker turnover on greyhound racing in each of the last five years as: £1.5 billion (1998); £1.2 billion (1999); £1.6 billion (2000); £1.8 billion (2001); and £2.1 billion (2002).
Profit levels are not available for all of the bookmakers, although some of the larger public owned companies provide profit figures in their annual reports.
The BGRB has also supplied figures detailing the money allocated to the Retired Greyhound Trust (RGT), a body funded through the voluntary contribution made by bookmakers to greyhound racing, for each of the last five years as: £137,000 (1998); £175,000 (1999); £245,000 (2000); £285,000 (2001); and £600,000 (2002).
There is no centrally held information concerning the retirement provisions at the 20 independent tracks.
Sports Administration
Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she is taking to promote greater co-operation between the sports administrators of the four home nations. [121409]
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Mr. Caborn: A number of means already exist to facilitate effective co-operation between the sports administrators of the four home nations. At ministerial level, there is the Sports Cabinet, which is responsible for identifying strategic priorities and brings together Sports Ministers from the four parts of the UK and others closely involved in the development of UK sport. The membership comprises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who chairs it, and the Home Country Ministers with responsibility for sport. I represent England. The Chairs of the Home Country Sports Councils also attend in the capacity as observers to hear discussions where appropriate. The Cabinet meets on average twice a year.
The Chairs of the Home Country Sports Councils are also Council members of UK Sport. UK Sport takes the lead in co-ordinating activities between home country sports councils and sport administrators working in high performance sport. UK Sport hosts regular meetings of the Chief Officers' Group, lead officers in performance, modernisation and on issues of ethics and equity. In addition, UK Sport has convened a 'Performance Forum', involving home country sports councils, the sports institutes from the home countries and representatives of national governing bodies of sport. This complements the work of the 'leadership group' which includes the directors and chairs of the four home country sports institutes, alongside representatives of UK Sport and which was established to help co-ordinate work across the UK Sports Institute network.
CHURCH COMMISSIONERS
St. Giles Church, Imber
28. Dr. Murrison: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners if he will make a statement on the Commissioners' plans for St. Giles Church, Imber. [122061]
Mr. Bell: St. Giles Church was declared redundant last November. The Commissioners have undertaken wide-ranging discussions with all interested parties about the options for the future of this church and will be considering these further next week.
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