Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Minutes of Evidence

Memorandum Submitted by the New Millennium Experience Company Limited

TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

28. The company's direct provision of transport infrastructure is confined to the Dome site—other than any limited, purpose built, temporary park and ride facilities. This includes the pier which will be going out to tender shortly with a planned completion date for the infrastructure of May 1999. The detailed design of the coach park, the kiss and ride area and the cycle and motorcycle storage areas are close to being finalised. The company continues to be involved in progressing the Millennium Transit, the riverside cycle/walkway, the controlled parking zone around the site in Greenwich and local traffic management measures. The company is contributing a total of £3.25m to the costs of these schemes.

29. The Highway Agency's progress with its responsibilities for highway infrastructure works and improvements in the region is included in the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Region's Memorandum.

JUBILEE LINE EXTENSION

30. Delivery of an effectively operated, 24 hour train per hour, Jubilee Line Extension by Spring 1999 as confirmed by LUL earlier this year remains crucial to the success of the Experience-both during the final months of the project's development leading up to opening so that contractors, Production and Operations staff can access the site easily, and during the operating year in 2000. The company is already incurring costs as a direct result of the delays to the opening of the JLE. Additional office accommodation has had to be acquired in central London for staff who would otherwise have moved to the company's site office at Greenwich if the JLE had been opened either to the original or the first deferred timetable.

31. The company's liaison with LUL on the JLE continues to be close and frequent but it has no role in the delivery of the JLE. The company is reliant on the JLE if the project's transport strategy is to be achieved.

TRANSPORT SERVICES

32. Agreements with the preferred bidders of river passenger services to the Dome direct from Waterloo, (via Blackfriars where there is demand), and to the Dome from Historic Greenwich will shortly be entered into jointly with London River Services. The company also intends to accommodate boats at the pier which serve the charter market provided that the high safety and quality standards expected of all transport services to the Dome are met. Discussions with the private company promoting the Cable Car system from East India Dock (north of the river) to the Dome site are ongoing.

33. The company's ongoing discussions with all transport service providers is also focusing on the opportunities available to benefit the operator, the visitor and the company alike. These include not only the optimum service levels necessary to meet visitor demand, but marketing and packaging of those services together with Dome entrance tickets.

THE NATIONAL PROGRAMME

34. The Millennium Experience seeks to be an inclusive project in which as many people as possible have the opportunity to participate—whether through visiting the Dome or taking part in events, activities and celebrations around the country. The National Programme is that part of the Experience project which reaches out across the UK. It has two components. The first is a series of UK-wide events, activities and initiatives which form an integral part of the Time to Make a Difference theme of the Millennium Experience project. Wherever possible they will link into the individual exhibit zones in the Dome. These initiatives fall into two strands—the UK Challenge and the Learning Experience—and will run from mid-1998 through to the end of 2000. The second component is the company's involvement in and contribution to the Millennium Festival in partnership with the Millennium Commission and the other National Lottery Distributors. The Millennium Festival's Fund of £100m will support celebrations, events and activities at local and regional level which will run throughout the year 2000.

35. Since December 1997, the company has established twelve countrywide offices in England (9), Scotland (1), Wales (1) and Northern Ireland (1) which are responsible for:

• Promoting and assisting the implementation of projects, events and activities under the UK Challenge and the Learning Experience.
• Promoting and assisting the implementation of the Millennium Festival—in particular providing an information service to people interested in grant support from the Fund; distributing grant application forms on behalf of the other Festival partners; providing the secretariat for the Millennium Festival Committees in England, Scotland, Wales and the equivalent in Northern Ireland; brokering financial support from private sector sponsors and others for Festival activities.
• Promoting the Millennium Experience at the Dome.

THE UK CHALLENGE

36. Schemes which fall within the UK Challenge include Marks and Spencer's Children's Promise, and projects under development and subject to ongoing negotiation with the other Founding Partner Sponsors-BSkyB, BT and Manpower.

37. The company has developed in partnership with delivery organisations a number of Challenge strands which are available for discussion with potential sponsors and will come on stream as and when sponsorship commitments are made. It is also the case that potential sponsors often have their own ideas about national programmes tailored to their corporate requirements and developed in discussion with the company.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

38. As the name implies, the Learning Experience is the programme through which the company seeks to ensure that the Millennium Experience makes a practical contribution to education across the country as well as throughout the content of the Dome. The programme has particular potential to bring a long-term legacy to the country. In developing the Learning Experience, the company has liaised closely with the Department for Education and Employment and its territorial equivalents, education authorities and boards, education institutions and agencies and others with an involvement in education. Education authorities and boards will be key partners in the implementation of the programme.

39. As with the UK Challenge, the company promoted and developed in partnership with others a number of millennium Learning Experience projects some of which are under active discussion with potential sponsors. The company is also, with the London Borough of Greenwich, aiming to pilot education schemes.

40. Projects under development are divided into four groups. In all cases the implementation of individual projects is subject to the commitment of partner sponsors.

• UK-wide: particularly schemes supported by Founding Partner and other sponsors, linking to the Dome Experience—for example, Tesco's SchoolNet 2000; children will capture life in their communities using pictures, words, poems, and interviews and will form an Internet version of the Domesday Book. The outcome will be on show in the Dome. Tesco is providing computer equipment in over 350 stores and employing 52 advisory teachers.
• Individuals and local: Learning celebrations involving personal contributions and initiatives.
• Regional: schemes initiated by communities and funded by local resources
• National: joint initiatives involving the company and partners such as the cultural industries-museums, galleries and the media.

41. The company is also working particularly closely with the London Borough of Greenwich assisting development of its own learning projects and arranging for some of the company's projects to be piloted in the Borough in the Summer term 1998.

THE MILLENNIUM FESTIVAL

42. The provenance of the Festival and the Fund is detailed in the Millennium Commission's Memorandum to the Committee and is also covered in the Memoranda of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Scottish Office, the Welsh Office and the Northern Ireland Millennium Company.

43. As described in paragraph 35 above, the company's country-wide offices and staff will play a key role in the Millennium Festival initiative. Part of that role has included the establishment and implementation of a Millennium Festival telephone inquiry facility. Since the launch of the Festival by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 27 February 1998, about 8,000 people have contacted the company's offices for Festival information and Fund application forms.

44. The company is committed to using its best endeavours to raise up to £16m sponsorship value as its contribution to the Fund and to cover up to £4m of administration and other running cost support for the Festival.

YOUTH COUNCILS/JUNIOR BOARDS

45. The company wishes young people to play a part in delivering the Millennium Experience—and particularly the Learning Experience programme. Consequently, through each of the Education managers in the company's twelve country-wide offices, Youth Councils of twenty young people aged 1016 have been set up and will meet every three months from June 1998 until December 2000. One member of each of the Councils will join the NMEC UK Youth Council which will comprise people of up to 18 years old and include representatives from the major national youth agencies. Members will act as advocates, researchers and reporters and will comment on the Millennium Experience plans. The UK Youth Council will hold its first meeting in July 1998.

FINANCIAL MATTERS & CONTROL

46. The company continues to operate within the £758m cash budget for the project. The bulk of expenditure in the period to 31 March 1998 was devoted to the Dome structure including the six "core" internal buildings and associated infrastructure totalling £73.8m of the total £89.7m expenditure in the period. This reflects the natural sequence of the project's development. All expenditure was funded by grant from the Millennium Commission which is paid on a monthly basis according to need and under the terms of the Grant Memorandum between the company and the Commission.

47. The budget is kept under regular and thorough review by senior managers, the Board's Executive Committee and the Board itself. The Millennium Commission and the Shareholder receive regular written reports and budget issues are discussed at Monthly Monitoring Meetings attended by the Commission, the company and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Underpinning these reviews and discussions the company has comprehensive systems and procedures which ensure frequent assessments and updates of programme and critical path activities, programme budgets, and risk management processes. There is, additionally, the weekly, non-executive New Millennium Experience Co-ordinating Group attended by the Shareholder, the Millennium Commission and the DCMS.

48. The working budget produced in May 1997 (which formed the basis of the Government's go-ahead for the project and for the Millennium Commission's agreement to grant) has been developed and reviewed as the project itself has progressed. The components of the lifetime budget are:

• Greenwich (Dome structure and associated infrastructure)  £275m
  Site & structures  £236m
  Infrastructure  £ 24m
  Transport    £15m
  (Off and on site piers;
  Millennium Transit; contribution to Greenwich traffic
  measures and other Section 106 transport)

• Greenwich (Dome exhibits and attractions      £191m
• Operations and Running costs (year of operation)    £81m
• National Programme (UK Challenge, Learning Experience
  and company's involvement in Millennium Festival)    £50m
• Commercial, communications and marketing    £31m
• Staff, accommodation, IT, Legal & Corporate    £42m
• Central Contingency          £88m

EACH BUDGET HEAD CONTAINS AN INFLATION CONTINGENCY.

49. The company has instituted regular and comprehensive budget reviews the timing of which is influenced to key points within the project's overall timetable. The next such review will be completed by the end of July.

50. Both the sponsorship and other commercial income targets remain testing. Achieving them is one of the most critical issues for the project particularly in terms of quantum and timing of cash income. We have announced sponsorship commitments with a total value of about £71m from the Founding Partners (BT, BSkyB, Tesco, Manpower and Marks and Spencer) and from official sponsors (BA, BAA, and Camelot). Further confirmations of support-for example by the City of London and associated financial institutions-which remains subject to further negotiations amount to another £16m. Discussions are underway with over forty other companies about sponsorship involvement in the project. The company is confident that further significant sponsorships will be forthcoming and that the income targets from this source can be achieved. Nonetheless the company does not underestimate the complex issues it faces some of which are without precedent-for example, treatment of and accounting for value-in-kind sponsorship; treatment of sponsorship which may go direct to third parties especially in the context of National Programme schemes; and balancing the integrity of the Experience with the commercial needs of sponsors without room for manoeuvre on deadlines. These issues are being addressed in discussion with others as necessary.

51. The company is required, under the terms of the Grant Memorandum with the Millennium Commission, to produce a Corporate Plan each year. The Board has decided to publish the 1998 Plan (excluding commercially sensitive material) and this will be available shortly. The company is also required, under the terms of the Financial Memorandum issued by the Shareholder, to publish the Annual Report & Financial Statements by the end of September each year. The company will meet this requirement.

ISSUES FROM THE COMMITTEE'S FIRST INQUIRY AND REPORT

52. The company, together with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, has addressed and responded to all except one of the Committee's recommendations and requests arising from its first inquiry and Report. The final issue concerned the Committee's recommendation that the company should consider releasing summary reports of proceedings to the public after every Board meeting, and that the company should hold an annual public meeting in Greenwich. The company is aware that the Government is aiming to publish proposals aimed at increasing openness and accountability of quangos and has been consulted, as have all NDPBs, on drafts of these proposals. In considering the Committee's recommendation (which was discussed by the Board in March 1998), the company has, therefore, also taken account of the Government's draft proposals.

53. The Board agrees with the Committee that as much information as possible about the company and the project should be made available to the public. A great deal of information is already publicly available-through the company's twelve country-wide offices, through the Visitor Centre at Greenwich, through pamphlets and booklets published by the company, through press releases, through the company's Web site, and through regular attendance of senior managers at Greenwich Millennium Trust Forum meetings attended by 40 or more representatives of a wide range of community, statutory, voluntary and other interest organisations and groups. Much more information will become available through further publications (including the Annual Report and Financial Statements and Corporate Plans), press releases and other activities. The Board considers that development and enhancement of existing public information mechanisms will be the most effective means of disseminating information about the company and the project. Where they are not commercially confidential or restricted in terms of policy development appropriate details about issues discussed by the Board will be made available through these mechanisms.

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Prepared 12 August 1998