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Lottery Grants
6. Mr. Jim Cunningham (Coventry, South): What action he is taking to simplify the application process for lottery grants. [110601]
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr. Chris Smith): My Department is working with distributors to ensure that the lottery application process is as simple and user-friendly as possible, and that forms
are written in plain language. The quality, efficiency and standards team, which I established last year, is looking at how the costs of making a lottery application can be reduced. Lottery distributors already have in place the awards for all scheme, which is a straightforward way for community groups to apply for grants of £500 to £5,000. One simple application form covers charities, arts, sport and heritage groups.
Mr. Cunningham: Is my hon. Friend aware that the Conservatives have pledged to withdraw national lottery money from schools and hospitals, despite overwhelming public support for such projects?
Mr. Smith: We are a little unclear about what the Conservatives would do. They specifically said at their party conference that health and education projects such as those supported by the new opportunities fund were not the sort of things that they believed that lottery money should be spent on. I believe that in that they differ from the vast majority of people in this country.
Mr. Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath): When the Secretary of State is considering simplifying the application process for lottery grants, will he bear in mind the fact that some small clubs, particularly sports clubs, struggle with the complexity of existing forms because they do not have the necessary expertise to fill them in? Of course the overall checking of any application has to be rigorous, but perhaps the initial form could be simple and straightforward, particularly for small clubs, and the more rigorous checking could happen later in the process, once the application is being proceeded with.
Mr. Smith: The hon. Gentleman asks a perceptive and constructive question, as he often does. Sport England and the heritage lottery fund already have a two-stage mechanism along the lines that he has outlined. I am also pleased to say that last month all the distributors attended a presentation by the Plain English Campaign and are considering how to make the best use of its services to ensure that the initial application process is easy to understand and that applications can easily be made by community groups, which may not have professional advisers ready to hand.
Mr. Peter Ainsworth (East Surrey): I am getting slightly tired of the Secretary of State traducing my opinions. I hope that he will answer a straight question. However simple the lottery application forms become, do not the Government's actions mean that sport, the arts and charities stand a lesser chance of benefiting from the lottery than previously, and that the biggest lottery winner is the Chancellor of the Exchequer?
Mr. Chris Smith: No. By the end of the current franchise period, the sport, arts, heritage and charities strands of the lottery will have received more than £1.9 billion each. That is more than was originally anticipated, even after the new opportunities fund was established to ensure that additional funds raised from the lottery could be made available to projects related to health, education and the environment.
Millennium Dome
7. Mr. Simon Thomas (Ceredigion): What proposals he has received from train and bus operating companies in Wales for special ticket and travel arrangements for the millennium dome. [110602]
The Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting (Janet Anderson): I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his first Culture, Media and Sport Question Time. We look forward to debating with him in the future.
The New Millennium Experience Company has been working closely with key travel trade operators to ensure that good-value travel packages--either day trips, or including accommodation--are available for the people of Wales.
Mr. Thomas:
I thank the Minister for that reply. However, there is little evidence that people in Wales are availing themselves of the millennium dome. Indeed, the Minister's Department was unable to give me any figures relating to ticket sales in Wales. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that the loans recently made available for the dome would have met the deficit in NHS spending in Wales. Will the Minister assure the House that, in future, ticket sales alone will determine the dome's success or failure, and that more effort will be made to allow people in Wales to go to the dome without being penalised by distance?
Janet Anderson:
I can say only that, during half-term week, no fewer than 178,000 people visited the dome. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State mentioned earlier, attendance at the dome so far has totalled 872,367 people. Those figures speak for themselves, but I understand that the hon. Gentleman's constituency has its day at the dome tomorrow--[Interruption.] If the hon. Gentleman had taken more interest in the dome's activities, he might have known that. I urge him to get down to the dome tomorrow and join his constituents.
Mr. Huw Edwards (Monmouth):
I assure my hon. Friend the Minister that the people of Monmouthshire will be delighted to participate in cheap package trips to see the wonderful entertainment at the dome. Last Thursday was Monmouthshire day there, and I watched a wonderful performance by young people associated with Gwent theatre from my constituency and the constituencies of my hon. Friends the Members for Newport, West(Mr. Flynn) and for Newport, East (Mr. Howarth). My only regret about that day was that no bus load of people from the Arts Council of Wales came to see the wonderful work of Gwent theatre. The council recently decided to end the theatre's franchise for next year. That decision has now been overturned, thanks to the wonderful campaign on Gwent theatre's behalf.
Janet Anderson:
My hon. Friend is right, and he gives a much more accurate and knowledgeable account of the interest of the people of Wales in the dome. If I may, I shall quote from the Daily Post report published after Gwynedd had its day in the dome in 18 February. It stated:
The young people of Gwynedd descended on the Millennium Dome yesterday . . . and they admitted they were "gobsmacked" by the building. John Meadows, of Barmouth, said last night, "We came
28 Feb 2000 : Column 11
- down here with the criticism it has had in recent weeks in mind, but it is absolutely fantastic. I'm gobsmacked, it absolutely blew me away."
Social Exclusion
8. Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow): What plans he has for community sport activity to help combat social exclusion; and if he will make a statement. [110603]
The Minister for Sport (Kate Hoey): The Government are determined to ensure that all sections of society have access to sporting opportunities and that community sport activities help to combat social exclusion.
Mr. Gerrard: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer and for what she said earlier to my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Mr. Pike) about targeting lottery funding. However, does she agree that successful community sports schemes can still have difficulties with day-to-day running costs? Because lottery funding and much other funding is project-oriented, there can still be a problem with core running costs. Will my hon. Friend look at what the Government can do to assist community sports schemes in that situation and at what can be done to encourage local authorities to assist them?
Kate Hoey: My hon. Friend is absolutely right; sport and recreational activity can make a real contribution to all aspects of neighbourhood renewal and can improve the whole area of young people's activities, including their attitude to health, employment, education and the reduction of crime. I know that he has an interest in the Leyton Orient community sports programme. It is a very good project, providing a real opportunity for young people to get involved in the football club, and the football club puts something back into the local community. I hope that my hon. Friend will convey to Leyton Orient our thanks for what the club is doing. Those are precisely the kind of joint initiatives and partnerships that will be necessary, because local authorities cannot do everything on their own.
Gender Balance (Sport)
9. Charlotte Atkins (Staffordshire, Moorlands): If he will make a statement on the gender balance relating to participation in sports and on funding to encourage greater participation by girls. [110606]
The Minister for Sport (Kate Hoey): Sport England provides more than £6 million of Exchequer funding to sports governing bodies, and all are required to ensure that they have proposals for the development of women and girls sport as part of the condition of funding. It also funds activities specifically designed to encourage more young women and girls to take up sport.
Charlotte Atkins: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. During the excellent Adjournment debate on14 December 1999, she said that she was studying recent research into what turns young girls off physical education and sport. Does she agree that many young girls are not excited by competitive sport but, because they are image-conscious, they are interested in activities such as dance, aerobics and gym-style workouts? What is she
doing to transform our teenage girls from a generation of couch potatoes to young fit women with high self-esteem and confidence? Is she aware that many women look to her, as a woman, to take a lead on this important issue?
Kate Hoey: My hon. Friend will be aware of two recent reports into the kind of physical education and sporting activities in which young girls are likely to be interested. One, a very important joint initiative by Nike and the Youth Sport Trust, proposed a range of new, innovative ways of encouraging young girls to stay interested in physical education and sport.
A number of things can be done to make the delivery of sport and physical education more attractive to them. Much more could be done about getting young girls involved in the planning and delivery of their lessons, such as introducing different types of sports. My hon. Friend is right that at a certain age, many young women do not want to be involved in competitive team sports. The important thing is that the rest of the school's pupils are not stopped from taking part in those sports. I am keen to find ways of getting more girls and young women involved in sport. The media could do much more to project the role of women in sport rather than using some of the images that they currently employ.
Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate):
Does the Minister agree that trends of sports participation at schools are in the wrong direction for both girls and boys, and that £6 million is a hopelessly inadequate amount of money from the Sports Council to promote sport in schools?
Kate Hoey:
One of the most interesting things to emerge from the young people in sport national survey conducted by Sport England was that more young people are taking part in sport, not necessarily in school, but after school and linked to school. Again, schools cannot do everything. They are the bedrock and the foundation, but the link between what happens in school and after school is important. That is why so much more support is being given to after-school activities that are sport-oriented.
Ms Claire Ward (Watford):
Is my hon. Friend aware that one issue highlighted by the Sport England report is that many schools lack the best facilities for sport on site? As a result, many children have to travel much further off-site to participate in sports, thus reducing the time available. Does she agree that, in this case, joined-up government between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education and Employment really would make things work?
Kate Hoey:
My hon. Friend is right. Departments on their own cannot deliver good quality physical education and sport in schools. We need that joined-up thinking. That is why we made the joint appointment of Sue Campbell from the Youth Sport Trust to work across Departments--between my Department and the Department for Education and Employment. That is joined-up thinking. There are many imaginative ways to make resources go further and to do things differently; that needs joined-up thinking and that is what we are determined to do.
Mr. Robert Maclennan (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross):
Does the Minister agree that when herhon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands
Kate Hoey:
It is important that the figures for the participation of young girls are right. In many schools, participation is as high as it has ever been. A good, high-quality physical education teacher and programme play an important role and do much to ensure that young girls and young boys receive an introduction to sport that will last them through life.
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