APPENDIX 1
Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I am writing to alert you to a minor factual error
in the memorandum submitted by my Department to the Committee
which has been highlighted following a written Parliamentary Question
from David Faber MP.
Paragraph 20 of the memorandum states that "...
On 29 June 1999 DCMS Ministers met the ESC and WNSL to discuss
costed options for increasing capacity for Olympics ...".
I can now confirm that no representatives of WNSL were present
at the meeting on 29 June 1999 as described. WNSL and the English
Sports Council submitted papers to my Department on 17 June 1999
and 23 June 1999 respectively, reviewing the options to increase
capacity at Wembley to 80,000 for athletics events. My officials
met representatives of WNSL and Sport England to discuss these
in detail on 28 June 1999 and the then Minister for Sport, the
hon. Member for West Ham, then met representatives from the ESC
on 29 June 1999 to discuss the capacity issues. It was agreed
at that meeting that increasing the capacity in football mode
from the start of the project was not viable, but that the design
should preserve the option to be upgraded later in line with Olympic
requirements. This view was subsequently communicated to WNSL
by officials from my Department.
This was a genuine drafting error for which I apologise.
I hope you will accept that it was in no way intended to mislead
the Committee.
I am copying this letter to David Faber for information.
22 March 2000
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