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Millennium Site (Future)
28. Mr. Simon Hughes (Southwark, North and Bermondsey): If he will make a statement on his plans for the millennium site after 2000. [72120]
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr. Chris Smith): The Government are concerned to ensure that the nation enjoys a long-term and enduring legacy from the millennium celebrations as a whole, and that includes the dome. That was one of the conditions set by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in June 1997 when the Government gave the go-ahead for the millennium experience at Greenwich. In June 1998, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister established a working group to make recommendations about the process of achieving a sustainable long-term use for the dome. We plan to make announcements very shortly about the outcome of that work.
Mr. Hughes: It was 15 months ago today that the previous Secretary fo State for Trade and Industry invited proposals for the future of the dome site after 2001, and we have heard regularly since last December that announcements were to be made shortly. What is holding up the Government in putting out proposals for people to consult on? Does the Secretary of State accept that the best way to proceed would be to secure maximum participation in the decision about what happens to the site afterwards? Does he agree that, the sooner we can get on with that, the more relieved many people will be?
Mr. Smith: The hon. Gentleman's desire for maximum participation will very soon be fulfilled because, within the next few days, we shall make announcements about an invitation for companies, organisations and individuals around the country to come forward with expressions of interest in the future use of the dome after the millennium year.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich): Is my right hon. Friend aware that there are enormous opportunities for the use of that great public space? I hope that he will consult carefully with youth organisations and local people in the Greenwich area, because the dome could not only attract young people from all over the United Kingdom but could be a great facility for everyone in the public sector. Does he agree that, although the great exhibition of Prince Albert was execrated by everybody before it was put in place, when it was finished it left us with three fine museums, which have been of tremendous benefit--at least until people were forced to pay to enter them?
Mr. Smith: My hon. Friend gives me a useful opportunity to remind her that, from 1 April, all children in the country will be able to enter those three fine museums for free.
The people of Greenwich and Greenwich borough council will be carefully involved, as they have been throughout the development of the dome, in any decisions about its future use. We need to balance the need to achieve a good return for the public investment that has gone into construction of the dome; the best possible regeneration for the Greenwich peninsula; and future use of the building as a real cultural asset for the whole nation. The competition will be all about getting that balance right.
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
The President of the Council was asked--
Iraq
33. Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow): If she will establish an ad hoc Select Committee on the effects of sanctions against Iraq. [72128]
The Parliamentary Secretary, Privy Council Office (Mr. Paddy Tipping): There are no plans to do so.
Mr. Dalyell: As the mind of the Foreign Affairs Committee is elsewhere, and as apparently more ordnance has been rained down on Iraq since Desert Fox than during Desert Fox, which in turn involved more ordnance and bombs than the Gulf war, are we not in a state of undeclared war? Should not an ad hoc Select Committee at least look at that?
In relation to the oil-for-food programme, should not a Select Committee examine Dennis Halliday and Michael Stone, the people who run the programme, who argue that it was in no way corrupted, and take into account the rupturing of the oil line with Turkey? Finally, could such a Committee look at the Tribune of a fortnight ago--and those horrifying pictures on the front of the paper that I sent to my right hon. Friend the President of the Council? Should it not be considered whether it is really the job of a Labour Government in effect to do that to those babies?
Mr. Tipping:
My hon. Friend has pursued those issues with vigour on a number of occasions. I am sure that he will continue to do so. His original question was to do with the processes by which the House deals with those matters, rather than with their substance. I have heard his concerns, and he can be sure that I will pass them on to the relevant colleagues. I also know that he will continue to pursue the matter, as he has this afternoon, with his usual vigour and intellect.
34. Ms Rosie Winterton (Doncaster, Central):
What proposals she plans to put forward for reviving the Standing Committee on Regional Affairs. [72129]
The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Margaret Beckett):
The Government have invited the Modernisation Committee to consider reviving and adapting the Standing Committee on Regional Affairs. The aim is to provide a forum in which the affairs of particular regions can be debated. I hope that the Modernisation Committee will come up with specific proposals soon, although, clearly, they will not command universal support.
Ms Winterton:
I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Will inquiries by the Committee be considered by the whole House, particularly inquiries into issues such as the distribution of European structural funds, which would affect not only areas such as South Yorkshire in the English region of Yorkshire and Humberside, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Mrs. Beckett:
I see no reason why European structural funds could not be debated by a regional Standing
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley (South-West Surrey):
Does the right hon. Lady think that, if such a Standing Committee were formed, it would consider transport matters, and strategic transport matters in particular? Further to that, does she think that the Committee would consider the absolute refusal of Ministers with responsibility for transport to visit the most difficult transport problem in the south-east--the A3 at Hindhead?
Mrs. Beckett:
I suspect that many areas would compete for that description, but I have suggested to the Modernisation Committee that a Committee of that type should determine for itself what are the issues on which it should focus and to which it should give the highest priority. No doubt, the right hon. Lady's case is one which it would take into account.
Mr. Paul Tyler (North Cornwall):
I assure the President of the Council that we welcome the re-examination of the validity and value of the Standing Committee, but do the Government intend to examine the advantages of devolution to our business in other respects? Do they intend to put a proposition to the Modernisation Committee, or the Procedure Committee, or do they intend to propose other ways in which the House can take advantage of the so-called devolution benefit?
Mrs. Beckett:
As the hon. Gentleman may know, the Procedure Committee is now considering the impact and aftermath of devolution, on which I shall give evidence to it tomorrow. That, however, is only one context in which the House is considering the variety of ways and forums in which we can raise the many issues that are of concern to Members throughout the House. What we are trying to do is find time to expand our capacity for debate.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich):
As my right hon. Friend will know, many of us in the regions will welcome the provision of extra parliamentary time to examine the problems. Is she also aware--I am sure that she is--that the Select Committee responsible not only for transport and the environment but for regional affairs makes it its business to examine transport problems in considerable detail? That Committee would probably have a little to say if there were any question of changing existing responsibilities.
Mrs. Beckett:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her courtesy, and for her reminder to the House. I do not think that any of us wishes to encroach on the work of existing Select Committees; we wish merely to provide space in which matters can be aired that cannot easily be aired at present.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York):
Agenda 2000 will give the Government more responsibility in the administration of European Union structural funds. Can the right hon. Lady assure us that those of us in regions
Mrs. Beckett:
I cannot undertake to provide a specific mechanism and procedures relating to Agenda 2000, but such matters can be raised in a variety of ways in the House--for instance, in the Select Committee on the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs, chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody)--and I am sure that will continue.
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