| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
New Millennium Experience Company
Mr. Marshall-Andrews: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make it his policy that no further funds, by way of (a) loan, (b) grant and (c) otherwise, will be (1) received by the New Millennium Experience Company from any Lottery fund; [110472]
- (2) provided from the Millennium Commission to the New Millennium Experience Company. [110473]
Janet Anderson [holding answer 17 February 2000]: The distribution of Lottery funds is a matter for the Lottery Distributors who operate independent of the Government. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will write in more detail, in his capacity as Chairman of the Millennium Commission, to my hon. and learned Friend.
Mr. Marshall-Andrews: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will provide in respect of (a) advances, (b) loans and (c) grants agreed to be made to the New Millennium Experience Company by the Millennium Commission since 1 January, details of undertakings as to the personal liability of (i) officers and (ii) directors of the New Millennium Experience Company and the Millennium Commissioners. [110474]
Janet Anderson [holding answer 17 February 2000]: I refer my hon. and learned Friend to the reply I gave him on 28 February 2000, Official Report, column 90W. Both the Non-Executive and Executive Directors of the New Millennium Experience Company are bound by the normal Companies Act regulations applying to Directors of Companies.
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many contracts were awarded by the New Millennium Experience Company to caterers to operate on the site of the Millennium Dome; what net revenue was received by the NMEC from the granting of those contracts; how many of those contracts were awarded after a process of competitive tendering; and how many of those contracts are still in force. [110912]
Janet Anderson
[holding answer 21 February 2000]: Sixteen catering and supply contracts have been awarded by the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC) to contractors to operate in and around the dome. All
29 Feb 2000 : Column: 251W
contracts have been let following competitive tender processes and all contracts are still in force. Each contractor will pay NMEC an agreed percentage of net sales as a concession fee, the precise details of which are commercially confidential while the contracts are current.
Mr. Peter Ainsworth:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much has been paid by the New Millennium Experience Company in overtime payments since the commencement of the Millennium Dome project. [110915]
Janet Anderson
[holding answer 21 February 2000]: The total sum paid by the New Millennium Experience Company in overtime since the start of the Millennium Experience Project (March 1997) is £677,418.
Mr. Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to his oral answer of 21 February 2000, Official Report, column 1246, on what basis he concluded that the NAO (a) does not have expertise in fair trading issues and (b) is not able to undertake a politically independent scrutiny role. [112051]
Janet Anderson
[holding answer 28 February 2000]: My right hon. Friend fully accepts the need for external scrutiny of the BBC's fair trading commitment. He considers, however, that other organisations would be better placed than the NAO, whose core work is financial audit and value for money exercises, to form a view on the adequacy of the BBC's fair trading policies. Taking account of this, and while in no way questioning the NAO's ability to undertake a politically independent scrutiny role, he believes the most effective way to meet the concerns raised in the Davies report is for him to appoint independent auditors and for their reports to him to be made available to the House and to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
Mr. Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on the mechanism he intends to deploy to review the BBC digital service; and what safeguards will be in place to prevent any compromise of the BBC's editorial independence. [112053]
Janet Anderson
[holding answer 28 February 2000]: The Government will be announcing details of the review of digital services in due course and we will ensure that the BBC's editorial independence is not compromised in any way.
Charlotte Atkins:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on the plans of Sir Denis Mahon with regard to his collection of paintings. [112612]
Mr. Alan Howarth:
The art historian and connoisseur Sir Denis Mahon has recently made it known that he intends to arrange for the great majority of his pre-eminent collection of Baroque pictures painted in Italy to pass after his death to the National Art Collections Fund for permanent allocation to public galleries and museums in Britain. At that time 58 paintings (with a
29 Feb 2000 : Column: 252W
present estimated value of approximately £20 million) will be deposited by the Fund permanently in British institutions with the stipulation, warmly endorsed by the Government, that they may remain only with galleries where free admission to the public is in place. Two further paintings, both by Guercino, The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and Elijah fed by Ravens, are to pass to the National Gallery in London by other means.
This is a magnificent gesture. I thank Sir Denis, on behalf of the Government, for his generosity in taking steps to ensure that most of his wonderful collection will be available for the greatest possible number of people to enjoy in this country after his death. They are at present on indefinite loan to the galleries and museums concerned. The works and their proposed permanent allocation are as follows:
29 Feb 2000 : Column: 253W
The National Gallery, London:
Gioacchino Assereto, The Angel appears to Hagar and Ishmael; Ludovico Carracci The Agony in the Garden; Valerio Castello, The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist; Guiseppe Maria Crespi, Musicians, Peasants with Donkeys; Donato Creti, Artemisia drinking the Ashes of Mausolus; Domenichino, Landscape with a Fortified Town; Luca Giordano, Mythological Scene of Agriculture, Allegory of Divine Wisdom, Allegory of Fortitude, Allegory of Justice, Allegory of Prudence, Allegory of Temperance, Apotheosis of the Medici, The Cave and Eternity, Minerva as Protectress of the Arts and Science, Mythological Scene with the Rape of Proserpine; Guercino, Saint Gregory the Great with Saints Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, The Cumaean Sybil with a Putto, The Angel appears to Hagar and Ishmael; Jan Lingelbach (attr.), Roman Street Scene with Card Players; Johann Liss, The Fall of Phaeton; Guido Reni, The Rape of Europa; Salvator Rosa, Landscape with Travellers asking the Way; Bartolomeo Schedoni, The Holy Family with the Virgin teaching the Child to Read; Matthias Stom, Salome receiving the head of Saint John the Baptist.
The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh:
Corrado Giaquinto, Madonna and Child in Glory appearing to Four Saints; Andrea Locatelli, Landscape with a Waterfall and Distant Lake, Rocky Landscape with a Natural Arch and Distant Tower; Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Jepthah returning from Battle is greeted by his Daughter; Salvator Rosa, Desolate Landscape with Two Figures, Landscape with Saint Anthony Abbot and Paul the Hermit; Andrea Sacchi, Saint Anthony of Padua reviving a Dead man; Francesco Solimena, The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Peter Martyr and Two Warrior Saints.
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford:
Paulus Brill, Mythological Landscape with Nymphs and Satyrs; Michelangelo Cerquozzi, Spring (Flora), Summer (Ceres); Pietro da Cortona, The Oath of Semiramis, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Noli Me Tangere; Domenichino, The Vision of Saint Jerome; Gaspard Dughet, Landscape in the Roman Campagna; Guercino, Head of an Old Man; Pierre Patel, Landscape in the Roman Campagna; Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, Angelica encountering the wounded Medoro; Ippolito Scarsella, The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist, Bernardo Strozzi; Horatius Cocles Defending the Bridge.
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge:
Francesco Albani, The Trinity with the Virgin Mary and Musician Angels; Ciro Ferri, The Adoration of the Shepherds; Andrea Sacchi, The Baptism of Christ; Bartolomeo Schedoni, The Coronation of the Virgin; Francesco Solimena (attr.), The Rest on the Flight into Egypt; Pierre Subleyras, The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth, Zacharias and John the Baptist.
The free access stipulation does not apply to this single exceptional case. The picture by Mola originated from the Temple Newsam collection, and it seems fitting that it should return there. Temple Newsam is treated by Leeds City Council as a country house involving admission charges, but its associated institution, the Leeds City Art Gallery, has no plans to charge admission.
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham:
Francesco Albani (studio), Faith, Hope and Charity; Giovanni Battista Gaulli, The Virgin, with the Child piercing the Head of the Serpent; Pieter van Laer (attr.), A Franciscan Saint distributing Food to Peasants; Pier Francesco Mola, Mercury and Argus; Salvator Rosa, Head of a Man with a Turban.
Temple Newsam House, Leeds:
Pier Francesco Mola, Landscape with two Carthusian Monks.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |