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8 Sept 2003 : Column 27W—continued
OFCOM
Mr. Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the total salary budget is of OFCOM. [126316]
Estelle Morris: OFCOM are currently in the process of matching staff across from the existing regulators and, where necessarily, recruiting competitively. The pay bill for OFCOM in 2004–05 is projected, on a like for like basis, to be 5 per cent. below estimates of the combined salary bills for staff in the existing regulators.
Playing Fields
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether a formal review of the work of the Playing Fields Monitoring Group is planned. [128612]
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the next set of playing field statistics will be published; and whether these will include comparative statistics for the last two years. [128611]
Mr. Caborn: The 2002–03 playing fields statistics will be published shortly. They will be published in a form similar to the 2001–02 figures published on 14 July 2003, which will allow for easy comparison.
Public Service Contracts
Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many public service contracts were awarded by her Department (a) in total and (b) to small and medium enterprises in each year since 1997; and if she will make a statement. [127799]
Mr. Caborn: The public service contracts awarded since 1997 for the Department and its Agency, with the number of contracts awarded each year to SMEs are as follows.
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| Year | Number of Contracts | SMEs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department for Culture, Media and Sport | |||||
| 2003: | (a) | 26 | (b) | 11 | |
| 2002: | (a) | 36 | (b) | 10 | |
| 2001: | (a) | 34 | (b) | 19 | |
| 2000: | (a) | 26 | (b) | 11 | |
| 1999: | (a) | 38 | (b) | 10 | |
| 1998: | (a) | 61 | (b) | 28 | |
| 1997: | (a) | 20 | (b) | 9 | |
| Royal Parks Agency | |||||
| 2003: | (a) | 7 | (b) | 5 | |
| 2002: | (a) | 14 | (b) | 7 | |
| 2001: | (a) | 4 | (b) | 2 | |
| 2000: | (a) | 12 | (b) | 4 | |
| 1999: | (a) | 7 | (b) | 1 | |
| 1998: | (a) | 10 | (b) | 5 | |
| 1997: | (a) | 10 | (b) | 7 | |
Scottish Land Fund
Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of future demand for grants from the Scottish Land Fund. [128001]
Estelle Morris: The New Opportunities Fund's Scottish Land Fund programme has generated strong interest among rural communities in Scotland in its first two years of operation. 129 applications have been made to the Scottish Land Fund to date, and 103 of these have been successful. The Fund currently receives around 20 eligible inquiries for funding per month and it estimates that this level of demand is likely to continue throughout the lifetime of the programme.
Secondment
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her Department's policy is on employing secondees from the private sector; how many secondees from the (a) private and (b) public sectors her Department employed in each year since 1997; from which companies and organisations they were seconded; at what level they were employed; and if she will make a statement. [127067]
Mr. Caborn: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport welcomes inward interchange from both the private and public sectors in our areas of responsibility. It enables us to build effective relationships through sharing and exchanging people, ideas and expertise and also fosters a more diverse environment in which we can draw on the experience and ideas of people from a wide range of backgrounds.
The Department has had no members of staff seconded from the private sector since May 1997.
The information in respect of secondees from the public sector is contained in the following table. Grades are given in the old unified grading system.
8 Sept 2003 : Column 29W
Supporters Direct
Mr. Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much money she has given to Supporters Direct to promote more democratic participation in the management of football clubs; and what related discussions she has had with the Football Association on the conversion of football clubs to mutual organisations. [127828]
Mr. Caborn: The Government launched Supporters Direct in 2000 to assist and advise supporters' trust groups to get involved in the responsible running of clubs. Most Premier and Football League clubs now have club trusts, and majority shareholdings are now held by supporters' representatives at three clubs. Supporters Direct received £250,000 a year in public funding for 2000–01 to 2002–03, and will receive core funding of £325,000 for 2003–04. These amounts were, and will be, "top-sliced" from the Football Foundation's income from the Reduction in Pool Betting Duty.
Supporters Direct has recently become an Industrial and Provident Society organised along mutual lines, and has suggested that professional football clubs could also benefit from the adoption of that status. I intend to discuss the issue with the football authorities once they have considered that suggestion in detail.
Tourism
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action the Government are taking to make the British tourism industry more competitive. [128574]
8 Sept 2003 : Column 30W
Mr. Caborn: The Government are encouraging competitiveness in the tourism industry by concentrating on measures that will encourage improvements to the quality of the product offered by individual tourism businesses through improvement in the skills base across the sector and encouraging effective investment in quality.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport works with other Whitehall Departments to ensure that issues such as planning policy reform meets the industry's needs and removes barriers to investment in the more productive types of tourism businesses. The Department is also represented on the board of the Best Practice Forum, which is part-funded by the Department for Trade and Industry. The Forum's Profit Through Productivity initiative provides business and enterprise support for the sector and aims to raise competitiveness and productivity across the sector.
Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what contribution in percentage terms was made by tourism in the South West to GDP in each financial year since 1997. [127820]
Mr. Caborn: Sub-national data of tourism's contribution to GDP are not generally available. South West Tourism is however currently producing a report on the economic value of tourism to the region which, I understand, is due to be published within the next month.
Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many tourists from overseas visited the South West in each financial year since 1997; and what percentage of overseas tourists to the UK this represented in each case. [127821]
Mr. Caborn: These data are shown in the table.
| Financial year | Staying visits by overseas tourists to the South West (million) | As a percentage of all staying visits by overseas tourists to the UK (percentage) |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 1.88 | 9.0 |
| 1998–99 | 2.04 | 9.3 |
| 1999–2000 | 1.97 | 8.4 |
| 2000–01 | 1.99 | 8.6 |
| 2001–02(4) | 1.73 | 8.4 |
(4) Provisional
Source:
International Passenger Survey, National Statistics
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