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Healthy Living Centres

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the role of healthy living centres in the Government's public health strategy. [127513]

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Yvette Cooper: The New Opportunities Fund is responsible for funding the healthy living centre initiative. Healthy living centre applicants need to demonstrate that their projects will support national and local health strategies. Healthy living centres will have a key role to play in reducing inequalities and supporting the work of other statutory and voluntary agencies locally. Healthy living centres funded through this initiative will promote good health in its broadest sense.

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Millennium Dome

Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what cost savings are planned for the rest of the year at the Dome. [123984]

Janet Anderson [holding answer 5 June 2000]: NMEC is achieving £20 million cost savings over the project's remaining lifetime which will bring the project back to its original cash ceiling budget of £758 million. In addition, NMEC is continuing to focus on cost efficiency and cost savings and aims to deliver more.

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will publish the basis on which the estimated closure costs of the Dome have been calculated. [126872]

Janet Anderson [holding answer 19 June 2000]: The closure costs of the Millennium Dome will be subject to the nature of the proposal from the winning bidder in the Legacy competition. Any non-planned closure costs would be determined by the nature and quantum of contractual liabilities at that point in time, including staff termination payments, supplier and contractor payments and legal bills.

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of sponsorship payments due to the new Millennium Experience Company in respect of the Dome had been received on time by 31 May. [126649]

Janet Anderson [holding answer 19 June 2000]: All sponsor contracts are individually tailored for each sponsorship, including phasing of sponsorship payments. At 31 May, all contractual sponsorship payments had been made. At that stage the contract with Boots was nearing finalisation and the company had paid amounts in advance of signature. The Boots contract has now been signed and all due payments have been made.

Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will estimate the cost of making admission to the Dome free from 1 July to the end of the year. [127485]

Janet Anderson: On the basis of ticket income foregone against the planned visitor volume, the cost of free entry from 1 July would be about £40 million.

Mr. Jon Owen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what type of information on ticket sales to the Millennium Dome has been released to the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport on a commercial-in-confidence basis which has not been made publicly available. [125529]

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Mr. Chris Smith: No information on ticket sales has been made available to the Select Committee on a commercial-in-confidence basis which has not been made publicly available. Information on visitor figures is regularly posted on the Dome's website (www.Dome2000.co.uk).

New Millennium Experience Company

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment the New Millennium Experience Company has made of its ability to meet its published commercial income target. [125027]

Janet Anderson [holding answer 8 June 2000]: NMEC has already made it clear that the original business plan assumptions were over-optimistic and its revised business plan, on the basis of 6 million revenue- generating visitors, forecasts commercial income (tickets, merchandise, food, corporate hospitality and events) of £86.1 million. Part of the difference between the original and current forecasts is mitigated by the revenue contingency factored into the original budget. The remaining difference formed part of the NMEC's applications for additional Lottery grant in January 2000 and May 2000. Despite the revision of the business assumptions the Dome is the most successful paying visitor attraction in the UK, achieving 3 million visitors in six months, and is the second most successful in Europe.

Mr. Jon Owen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he will answer the questions from the hon. Member for Cardiff, Central on the NMEC, tabled for answer on 9 June. [128620]

Janet Anderson: I answered my hon. Friend's questions (125528, 125530 and 125531) on the NMEC on 29 June 2000, Official Report, columns 618-19W. I am answering question No. 125529 today.

Flaxmill Project

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for how long the English Heritage grant will be available for the Flaxmill project in Shrewsbury; and if he will make a statement. [125945]

Mr. Alan Howarth: The English Heritage grant will be available as long as it is needed to get this important project off the ground. English Heritage grants are normally time limited and conditional on works starting within six months, and being completed within two years, of the date of offer. However, in this case English Heritage have agreed to hold their grants offer open in the hope that their funding partners will be able to find their share of the funds needed to secure the future of this Grade I listed building at risk.

Listed Churches

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Lottery money, and how many grants, have been allocated to restoration of listed churches in each year since 1995; and what plans he has to increase the resources available for the restoration and maintenance of listed churches. [128515]

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Mr. Chris Smith: We have contacted the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage to request the information required, and I will write to the right hon. Member as soon as it is available, placing copies of my letter in the Library of the House.

National Lottery

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps is he taking to ensure that small community-based projects have increased access to Lottery funding. [128351]

Kate Hoey: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has encouraged the distributing bodies to continue and enhance the cross-distributor small grants programme, Awards for All, which distributes grants of £500-£5,000 to community-based groups for arts, sports, heritage, charitable and other community activities. The average size of a Lottery grant today is £40,000, down from a peak of more than £250,000 in 1995-96, which means that many more groups are able to benefit from Lottery funds.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much money the National Lottery raised in the last 12 months for which figures are available; and what was the average weekly figure for that period. [128358]

Kate Hoey: In the 12 months to the end of May 2000, the National Lottery raised a total of £1.789 billion for good causes (including money earned on the balance of the National Lottery distribution fund). This equates to an average of £34 million per week.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps his Department is taking to ensure equitable distribution of Lottery funding throughout the United Kingdom. [128347]

Kate Hoey: The Government are committed to ensuring that Lottery funding is distributed fairly both geographically and across all groups of society. This is reflected in the changes made to Lottery distribution through the National Lottery Act, 1998, and through the revised Policy Directions which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State issued in summer 1998. My Department and the Lottery distributors have set up an action team to help ensure that areas of low take-up fare better from the Lottery in future.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he takes to monitor the extent to which Lottery funds are equitably distributed throughout the United Kingdom. [128349]

Kate Hoey: My Department monitors the Lottery awards given to each constituency. The policy directions issued to each distributor require them to take account of the need to ensure that all parts of the country have access to funding.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the projects for which Lottery funding has been applied for to date. [128345]

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Kate Hoey: Applications for Lottery funds are made in confidence and therefore no complete list of projects that have applied for Lottery funds is available. A list of successful applications is available on my Department's website at www.lottery.culture.gov.uk.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to ensure that seaside towns receive Lottery funding for regeneration projects. [128344]

Kate Hoey: The National Lottery funds numerous projects which bring widespread benefits to seaside towns. Research jointly commissioned by my Department and the Lottery distributors into Lottery funding in the coalfields and other areas does however suggest that resort and retirement towns have made relatively fewer applications and have received less per capita than the national average. We have set up an action team to take forward recommendations in this research and will explore ways of ensuring that all areas, including seaside towns, receive their fair share in future.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what is the maximum percentage of funding a project can attract in Lottery funding. [128444]

Kate Hoey: Each National Lottery distributor sets its own levels of expected partnership funding. In doing so they seek an element of partnership funding commensurate with the ability of different kinds of applicants, or applicants in particular areas, to obtain such support. In some instances this may result in 100 per cent. National Lottery funding. Volunteer time and other contributions in kind may be considered as providing partnership support.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he takes to advertise funding opportunities through the Lottery to voluntary and community groups. [128350]

Kate Hoey: My Department has published and distributed leaflets drawing attention to the Lottery funding available. Similar information is available on the DCMS website www.culture.gov.uk. My Department is also working with the distributing bodies, local authorities and others to improve the flow of information to voluntary and community groups.

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the total value of Lottery ticket sales is in the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency since the Lottery began. [128357]

Kate Hoey: In the first five years of the Lottery's operation (that is, up to 13 November 1999), ticket sales in the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency were £31,646,302. No more recent breakdown of Lottery ticket sales by constituency is available.

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