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CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

School Football Coaches

19. Mr. Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how the Football Foundation will help expand the activity of qualified football coaches in primary and secondary schools. [141892]

Kate Hoey: The Football Foundation will devote 75 per cent. of its income to improving grassroots football facilities and coaching across England. This will be in the region of £18 million in the current year and double from April 2001 onwards. Grant criteria are a matter for the Foundation, but I would expect primary and secondary schools to be eligible provided facilities and/or coaching was for both the school and the wider community.

Regional Theatres

20. Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent representations he has received about the funding of regional theatres; and if he will make a statement. [141893]

Mr. Alan Howarth: I have received some representations from the sector, however this remains a matter for the Arts Council of England, as the main funding body for the arts in England, and the regional arts boards.

Tourism (Wales)

21. Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on the promotion of Wales as a tourism venue overseas by the British Tourist Authority. [141894]

Janet Anderson: The British Tourist Authority (BTA) works with the Wales Tourist Board (WTB) as equal, strategic partners in promoting Wales abroad. The BTA has an overseas marketing agreement with the WTB, which sets out their respective roles, responsibilities and working relationships in the overseas promotion of Britain and Wales. In addition, the Chairman of the WTB is an ex officio member of the BTA Board, representing Welsh interests and advising on strategic and policy matters whenever key decisions are taken.

School Sports

22. Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will ensure that those primary schools with poor sports facilities will be made a priority for investment under the space for sport and arts scheme. [141895]

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Kate Hoey: One of the key objectives for the space for sport and arts scheme is to create new, and modernise existing, sports and arts facilities for primary schools where existing facilities are poor, inadequate or simply do not exist. The prospectus sent to 65 local education authorities in early October highlighted this objective, and this key message was further re-enforced during a series of regional workshops held with the LEAs in October and November. Sport England received outline proposals from the LEAs last week and these are currently being assessed against a number of criteria, including the condition of existing facilities. We will announce in January details of projects which have been given, in principle, support.

23. Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations he has made to Sport England to amend the 40 hour rule governing the grant of lottery funds to primary schools for sports development involving local communities. [141896]

Kate Hoey: Sport England has already reviewed the way in which it assesses Lottery applications under its School Community Sports Initiative. As a result Sport England no longer has a specific requirement that school facilities must be available for 40 hours of community use per week. Rather it assesses the overall sporting benefit to the community together with any particular factors affecting the level of community use in deciding whether to award a grant. Facilities provided by primary schools under the space for sport and the arts scheme will be available to the community, but there will be no requirement for 40 hours of such use.

Seaside Resorts

24. Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has to support the regeneration of seaside resorts. [141897]

Janet Anderson: My Department is doing a great deal to support the regeneration of seaside resorts which was one of 15 key action plans set out in the national strategy, "Tomorrow's Tourism". Many resorts are in a position to benefit from funding opportunities in the new European structural funds and UK assisted areas maps or from this summer's single regeneration budget announcement. I announced a four-point support plan for resorts at the start of a tour I made this summer to learn at first hand about the problems and best practice in seaside resorts. In line with our funding agreement with the English Tourism Council, its resorts task force is due to produce its report early next year, which will recommend a programme of actions for resort regeneration.

National Museum Visits

26. Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to encourage families to visit major national museums. [141899]

Mr. Chris Smith: Our policy is to encourage all museums to offer the widest possible access to their collections. We have enabled those national museums funded by my Department which already offer free admission to continue to offer it, and we have scrapped entry charges for children and the over-60s at those that charge. We have also funded them to enable their trustees to introduce a standard admission charge of £1 for adults

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from September 2001, and to allow free admission to all people who are in receipt of the major benefits, including people with disabilities.

Lottery Funding (Targeting)

27. Mr. Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to ensure that funding from the lottery is targeted on the communities with greatest social and economic need. [141900]

Mr. Chris Smith: I have directed Lottery distributors to take into account the need to ensure that all areas have access to funding and the scope for reducing economic and social deprivation. Distributors must show how they will achieve this in their strategic plans and my Department is monitoring progress.

Millennium Dome

28. Mr. Wilkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with commercial companies about the future of the dome at Greenwich. [141901]

Janet Anderson: I have had no discussions with commercial companies about the future of the Dome at Greenwich.

Community Groups (Lottery Funding)

29. Ms Rosie Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations he has received about the process by which community groups will apply for national lottery funding. [141902]

Mr. Chris Smith: I have received a number of representations from community groups and others on the need for application processes to be as accessible as possible. The reports I commissioned from the independent Quality, Efficiency and Standards Team and Sheffield Hallam University contained recommendations for simplifying and improving application processes to make it easier for community groups to apply for funding.

Lottery distributors have welcomed the reports and are working together, with the Department, to take forward the recommendations. These include: the setting up of a joint national helpline to provide initial advice and guidance for potential applicants; reducing information requirements on applications for smaller grants; and ensuring that all guidance notes are of a high standard.

In addition, the highly successful awards for all scheme, which uses a simpler application form and provides Lottery grants of between £500 and £5,000 to small community based groups, is to continue in England until at least March 2002.

Bridge and Chess (Lottery Support)

Mr. David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations he has received in relation to the eligibility for Lottery support of organisations involved with bridge and chess. [141877]

Kate Hoey: My Department has received a number of representations in the past from chess and bridge organisations regarding eligibility for support from the Lottery.

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Public Libraries

Ms Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to improve accessibility to public libraries. [141881]

Mr. Alan Howarth: Last year I published a policy document, "Libraries for All", which identified what public libraries can do to help combat social exclusion and improve their accessibility to everyone in the community. I intend to publish a revised policy statement together with an action plan very soon and I shall also be introducing public library standards next year which will deal with all aspects of library services including access.

Sports Coaching

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proposals he has for increasing the number of qualified sports coaches working with schools. [142059]

Kate Hoey: Many of our proposals are directed towards increasing the number of qualified coaches working with schools.

The school sports co-ordinator scheme will provide 1,000 co-ordinators in secondary schools by 2004. Most of the co-ordinators will be based in secondary schools and linked to specialist sports colleges, of which there are now 83 designated across 58 different local eduction authorities. The sports colleges draw on the coaching expertise of local sports clubs and are developing excellent facilities across a range of sports, and, through their partnerships with local primary schools and community groups, are giving many children the opportunity to gain a head start in sport.

Alongside the co-ordinators scheme, we recognise the need to invest in volunteer training to increase the links between schools and elite sports. That is why we have set aside £4 million from our spending review settlement to invest in two levels of volunteer training and support from 2002. We will underpin the training and support for young people aged 14 to 19 to develop leadership skills in sport and in their local communities where they can act as role models for younger children and perhaps prepare themselves for careers in sport. We will be working closely with NGBs to develop volunteer strategies to encourage and support more adults to get involved as leaders, coaches, officials and administrators.

The Sport Strategy Implementation Group has been looking at ways to increase the number of qualified sports coaches working with schools, and once the recommendations have been presented to Ministers on 13 December, the implementation process will proceed.

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