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Dancing Schools

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what his estimate is of the number of dancing schools in (a) London and (b) England and Wales; if he will break them down by styles of dance predominantly taught; what funding is available for ethnic minority schools of dancing; and what the level of public expenditure was on each variety of dance in each of the past five years. [151627]

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Mr. Alan Howarth: The Council for Dance Education and Training (CDET), an independent body representing dance training providers, accredits courses at vocational dance training schools. CDET's membership includes 24 vocational dance schools in England: 13 in London, five more in the south-east, and six in the midlands or north-west. Ten of these focus on musical theatre (dance), six on ballet, four on contemporary dance, three on both musical theatre and ballet, and one on these three styles. In addition, the CDET is aware of at least 10 other schools in England which say they offer vocational training. Information on Welsh schools is a matter for the devolved Administration.

Funding for dance is provided through a range of public and private sources, at central Government and local levels. DCMS support for dance is undertaken by the Arts Council of England and the regional arts boards. The information is not readily available in the form requested, but the Arts Council has provided the following breakdown of grant in aid for specific dance causes, and headline figures for Arts Lottery expenditure on dance, as follows:

Grant in aid

				£
Year	Total	Ballet	Contemporary	African/Asian
1997-98	23,548,016	17,425,531	2,354,803	941,920
1998-99	23,165,756	17,142,659	2,316,576	1,158,289
1999-2000	27,264,356	19,902,979	2,726,435	1,363,217
2000-01	25,895,815	18,903,944	2,589,581	1,297,790

Arts Council Lottery dance expenditure/awards total £133,074,167. It includes:

New Audiences Programme: £698,000;

Regional Arts Lottery Programme: £4,850,109;

Interim Funding Scheme £19,114,413 (includes awards to drama colleges, and a 50 per cent. grant from the DfEE).

Sport England provides some support for ballroom and Latin dancing, and some physical movement related dance forms. Grant in aid provision totalled over £300,000 in the last five years, with Lottery awards of at least £420,000, although the overall figure is likely to be higher where dance has featured as part of broader Lottery applications.

Sites and Monuments Records (Internet)

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to ensure local authorities maintain and develop comprehensive sites and monuments records and post them on the internet. [151865]

Mr. Alan Howarth: A recommendation that the Government should ensure that local authorities have access to comprehensive records of the historic environment and that such information should be widely available through the electronic media was included in English Heritage's recent report "Power of Place". The Government are considering all the recommendations made in that document and plan to issue a policy statement during the spring.

Football Supporters Trusts

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what financial and other

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resources the Government have provided for the establishment of football supporters trusts in England; to whom the Government provided such resources; and on what dates. [152071]

Kate Hoey [holding answer 5 March 2001]: Supporters Direct was established last year to offer advice to those wishing to form supporters trusts. Supporters Direct receives no funding from the Government. The Football Foundation has allocated funding of £250,000 to Supporters Direct for 2000-01, and funding arrangements for 2001-02 and subsequent years are under discussion.

Timber

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if his Department's annual report on timber procurement to the Committee of Green Ministers will be published. [152103]

Janet Anderson: In common with all other Government Departments, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will submit details of timber procurement to the Committee of Green Ministers. The Green Ministers' report is published annually and will make specific reference to timber procurement.

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Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much certified timber has been purchased by his Department over the past six months; and what proportion of total timber purchases this represents. [152119]

Janet Anderson: To answer the parliamentary question would incur disproportionate cost. Departments do not yet have systems in place to provide the data on the proportion of certified timber purchased over the last six months. The interdepartmental working group on timber procurement is working to develop a common reporting template, which will form the basis for the future reporting on timber procurement.

Regional Arts Boards

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the administration costs as a percentage of total expenditure were of each of the regional arts boards in each of the last three years; and what the forecast figures are for the current year, including the underlying data, on which the calculations are based. [152620]

Mr. Chris Smith: The information requested is in the table:

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	East England Arts	East Midland Arts Board	London Arts	Northern Arts Board	North West Arts Board	Southern Arts Board	South East Arts Board	Arts Board South West	West Midlands Arts Board	Yorkshire Arts Board	Average
1996-97
Total administration and overheads	1,172,567	907,999	1,788,826	1,153,409	1,346,020	987,085	837,920	1,062,346	1,163,108	1,098,290	--
Total expenditure	5,672,041	5,039,043	14,864,120	8,267,016	9,667,594	4,396,563	3,386,680	4,980,592	6,468,162	7,641,412	--
Admin. and overheads as percentage of total expenditure	21	18	12	14	14	22	25	21	18	14	18
1997-98
Total administration and overheads	1,306,192	1,022,998	2,148,360	1,191,143	1,467,866	1,152,545	1,105,794	1,076,834	1,222,727	1,232,622	--
Total expenditure	5,921,244	5,168,319	14,872,438	7,891,794	11,219,265	4,503,999	3,615,520	5,238,197	6,822,659	7,774,146	--
Admin. and overheads as percentage of total expenditure	22	20	14	15	13	26	28	21	18	16	19
1998-99
Total administration and overheads	1,356,880	1,122,304	1,967,743	1,153,409	1,548,197	1,214,485	1,133,405	1,278,564	1,277,346	1,315,188	--
Total expenditure	5,639,774	5,365,203	14,811,118	8,267,016	10,078,239	5,079,650	3,761,861	5,297,039	7,000,927	8,021,625	--
Admin. and overheads as percentage of total expenditure	24	21	13	14	15	24	30	24	18	16	20
1999-2000
Total administration and overheads	1,627,448	1,674,667	2,329,840	1,304,918	1,685,940	1,447,191	1,474,530	1,843,841	1,480,836	1,464,843	--
Total expenditure	6,293,572	7,006,544	16,015,916	9,405,899	11,546,441	5,819,415	4,398,127	6,183,189	8,145,266	8,814,294	--
Admin. and overheads as percentage of total expenditure	26	24	15	14	15	25	34	30	18	17	22
2000-01(21)
Total administration and overheads	2,028,838	1,534,075	3,214,962	1,407,115	2,071,889	1,565,038	1,642,913	1,426,484	1,637,777	1,665,275	--
Total expenditure	9,690,169	9,598,019	31,498,337	12,623,240	18,643,253	11,278,692	7,210,107	9,266,951	13,766,026	12,775,457	--
Admin. and overheads as percentage of total expenditure	21	16	10	11	11	14	23	15	12	13	15

⁽²¹⁾ Forecast

Notes:

1. Total administration and overheads figure includes staffing costs, costs related to premises, office costs, travel and subsistence and company costs. It excludes everything which may be considered to be direct arts spend.

Source:

All figures are taken from RAB audited accounts, with the exception of 2000-01 which are taken from RAB business plans

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Television Audio-description Services

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the level of audio-description services available to blind people with television sets. [151849]

Janet Anderson: The Broadcasting Act 1996 sets a 10 per cent. target for audio description to be reached by the 10th anniversary of the start of the digital terrestrial television (DTT) service. The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has set an interim target for at least 2 per cent. of programmes on DTT to be audio described by the start of the second year of the service. The BBC's policy is to at least match these targets. I understand from the ITC that the 2 per cent. target has been met, except by those channels which have been granted special exemption.

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