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19 Apr 2004 : Column 236W—continued

Telephone Costs

Norman Baker: To ask the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, representing the House of Commons Commission what the total telephone bill for the House was in the last year for which figures are available. [165687]

Sir Archy Kirkwood: The cost of telephone calls and rental in 2002–03 was approximately £1.6 million.

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Licensing Act (Circuses)

9. Mr. Luff : To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when she last met representatives of the circus industry to discuss the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003. [166149]


 
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Mr. Caborn: Meetings with the circus industry about the Licensing Act 2003 have been at official rather than ministerial level. Officials from my Department last met circus industry representatives on 5 March and have also discussed these issues with the Arts Council and with Equity.

Motor Sport

10. Richard Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and sport, what efforts she is making to promote motor sport in the UK. [166150]

Mr. Caborn: The Government fully support the promotion of motor sport in this country including world-class motor sport events. Officials from my Department, together with those from the Department of Trade and Industry and four Regional Development Agencies are supporting the work of the Motorsport Development Board (MDB). This industry-led body has the remit to promote and develop motor sport in the UK. Financial support of up to £16 million for the work of the MDB was announced by my right. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on 11 July 2003.

Tourism (Seaside Resorts)

11. Shona McIsaac : To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to promote tourism in English seaside resorts. [166151]

Estelle Morris : VisitBritain receives a grant of £12.9 million to promote holidays to the domestic market. Seaside resorts feature in the current and future campaigns. Next year they will benefit substantially from the "SeaBritain" campaign in which VisitBritain will be a partner of the National Maritime Museum.

Gift Aid (Museums)

12. Mr. Heath : To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on gift aid in relation to museums. [166153]

Estelle Morris: Officials from my Department, representatives from the museums sector and Inland Revenue officials met in February to discuss gift aid in relation to Museums. The results of the consultation will be announced around the time of the outcome of the 2004 Spending Review.

Gambling

13. Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make a statement on reform of gambling laws. [166154]

Mr. Caborn: We plan to introduce a Gambling Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows. The Bill will modernise the law and provide stronger safeguards. We are considering the report of the Joint Scrutiny Committee that looked at our draft Bill. It made 139 recommendations and we will consider each carefully.
 
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Playing Fields

15. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Medial and Sport how many playing fields were sold in each financial year since 2001–02. [166156]

Mr. Caborn: The available data relate to planning applications. In 2001–02, 91 per cent. and in 2002–03, 90 per cent. of all approved planning applications relating to playing fields improved sporting provision or kept it at the same level.

National Lottery

17. Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the proportion of lottery good causes money that will go to the New Opportunities Fund. [166158]

Estelle Morris: The New Opportunities Fund (NOF) gets 33.33 per cent. of operator-related income to the National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF), and a share of earnings from the investment of the NLDF balance. NOF's share of investment earnings is related to its proportion of the total NLDF balance. It changes frequently as that proportion changes.

Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the total amount of unclaimed lottery prizes is; and what the largest single unclaimed amount is. [166157]

Estelle Morris: Total unclaimed prizes up to the week ending 20 March 2004 were £614.4 million. The largest unclaimed prize to date is £3,011,065.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on Lottery funding for sports facilities for local football clubs. [166531]

Mr. Caborn: Lottery funding will continue to be made available for the provision of new sports facilities—including facilities for local football clubs.

Local football clubs can benefit from a wide range of publicly funded programmes and initiatives: for example, the New Opportunities Fund for PE and Sport; Active England; Community Club Development Fund; and Green Spaces and Sustainable Communities.

Funding is also available through the Football Foundation to support capital projects, such as the £60,000 recently awarded to Poppleton Junior Football Club for the re-development of pitches on their Millfield Ground.

Accountancy Services

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the (a) nature and (b) value was of all contracts, consultancies or other services placed with the accountancy firms (i) Deloitte & Touche, (ii) Ernst & Young, (iii) KPMG and (iv) PricewaterhouseCoopers since 2000–01 by the Department and its agencies. [166095]

Mr. Caborn: The following contracts are those awarded over the stated time period:


 
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The return includes Royal Parks Agency.

BBC

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she last met the acting Director General of the BBC; and what was discussed. [166093]

Tessa Jowell: I met Mark Byford, the acting Director General of the BBC, on 4 February. This was an informal meeting and we discussed a range of topical issues relating to the BBC.

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with the BBC on future funding of the Corporation. [166140]

Tessa Jowell: The arrangements for future funding of the BBC will be considered as part of the Charter review process. I have had several meetings with the BBC to discuss the review process but have not specifically discussed funding with the Corporation.

Departmental Computers

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans she has to update computer (a) hardware and (b) software standard packages used in her Department. [166372]

Mr. Caborn: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will be updating a number of its desktop PCs as part of regular system upgrade plans. The Department also plans to update its e-mail, finance and HR systems.

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