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Regional Arts Boards
Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which regional arts boards experienced a standstill in their arts grant from central Government funding between 1992-93 and 1998-99; and for what reasons. [151297]
Mr. Alan Howarth: The regional arts boards are not directly funded by central Government but from the allocation of grant in aid made to the Arts Council of England. Fluctuations in funding to individual arts boards reflect the increases and decreases in grant in aid to the Arts Council, these being a matter for its decision. The following table drawn from ACE's annual reports and accounts details both the grant in aid to the Arts Council between 1992-93 and 1998-99 and for each of the regional arts boards.
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Source:
ACE annual report and accounts
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Source:
ACE annual report and accounts
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Departmental IT Projects
Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the IT projects his Department plans to undertake in the next year; and if he will state in each case the (a) expected date of commencement and completion and (b) cost. [151475]
Mr. Chris Smith: The IT projects currently being planned by the Department for the next year are as follows:
- Redevelopment of the Department's website--start date May 2001, end date October 2001.
Review the functionality of the Government Art Collection website--start date September 2001, end date February 2002.
Replacement of remainder of desktop PCs--start date December 2001, end date April 2002.
Development of communications management processes--start date July 2001, end date February 2002.
Redevelopment of Department's intranet--start date June 2001, end date December 2001.
Development and implementation of e-business strategy--on-going.
Alongside these projects the Department will be taking forward a number of major initiatives including the development of Culture Online, e-tourism pilots and, with funding provided through the New Opportunities Fund, the rollout of the UKOnline Learning Centres which will see all public libraries connected to the internet.
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Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the IT projects currently undertaken in his Department; and if he will state the (a) expected completion date and (b) cost of each project. [151516]
Mr. Chris Smith: The IT projects currently being undertaken by the Department with expected completion dates are as follows:
- Development of a database for recording export licensing requests for works of art--May 2001.
A website for the Government Art Collection--April 2001.
Replacement of desktop PCs--April 2001.
Implementation of the Knowledge Network--April 2001.
Conversion of internal systems to support web access--March 2001.
Review of communications--June 2001.
Development and implementation of e-business strategy--next key milestone July 2001.
In addition we are supporting additional development work on the 24 Hour Museum.
Arts Council Salaries
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had regarding proposed salary levels at the Arts Council; and if he will make a statement. [150545]
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Mr. Chris Smith [holding answer 15 February 2001]: None.
Olympic Games
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations he has made to the Greek authorities about possible development of a sports complex for the 2004 Olympics on the site of the Battle of Marathon. [150271]
Kate Hoey [holding answer 15 February 2001]: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has not made any representations to the Greek authorities on the matter of the development of the Battle of Marathon site for the 2004 Olympics. This is purely a matter for the Greek authorities.
Sporting Activities (Deprived Children)
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action the Government are taking to encourage children from deprived areas to take up sporting activities. [150628]
Kate Hoey: The Government have a number of initiatives--including School Sports Co-ordinators, Sport Action Zones, Space for Sport and Arts--aimed at improving sport in schools and for communities which have the needs of people living in deprived areas at their heart. We will also ensure that the mechanism for distributing New Opportunities Fund Round 3 money will include some weighting to take account of deprivation.
Departmental Expenditure Limit
Ms Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans there are to amend his Department's departmental expenditure limit and running costs limit for 2000-01. [151193]
Mr. Chris Smith: Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate for Class XI, Vote 1, the DCMS Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) for 2000-01 will be reduced by £9,839,000 from £1,030,565,000 to £1,020,726,000 and the running costs limit will be reduced by £4,400,000 from £35,256,000 to £30,856,000.
The changes are to provide for the use of £5,700,000 of the proceeds from the sale by the British Library of 25 Southampton Buildings for meeting the costs of a new conservation and digitisation studio, a further amount of £9,840,000 from the sale proceeds is being surrendered to the Consolidated Fund as Extra Receipts; to provide for the use of £3,000,000 of the proceeds from the sale of 6 Burlington Gardens to assist English Heritage with the purchase of land for the construction of a new visitor centre at Stonehenge, and for use by the Department of £2,000,000 of the sale proceeds for capital works at its headquarters buildings; to provide for a reduction of £4,400,000 in the gross running costs of the Royal Parks offset by an increase of the same amount in their other current expenditure to reflect the reclassification of the expenditure of the Royal Parks Constabulary out of running costs; and to provide for increased expenditure of £630,000 on DCMS gross running costs offset by an increase in recoveries of eligible deductible input VAT.
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