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13 Sept 2004 : Column 1456W—continued

Sport England Database

Jim Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make a statement on the launch of Sport England's Active Places online database. [187905]

Mr. Caborn: Active Places is a free to use, comprehensive on-line database of sports facilities in England. It provides details of more than 10,000 facilities, including swimming pools, synthetic pitches, health and fitness centres and ski slopes.

Active Places was officially launched on 11 July at the BAA Heathrow London Youth Games by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and Roger Draper, Chief Executive of Sport England.

The Active Places database can be found on www.activeplaces.com

Olympics 2012

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps the Government is taking to promote the Olympic bid for 2012. [186953]

 
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Tessa Jowell: The Government wholeheartedly supports the bid and has built a strong alliance with the British Olympic Association, the Mayor of London and the bidding company with the aim of delivering the best ever Games in London 2012.

This was most recently demonstrated in Athens during the Olympic Games where both the Prime Minister and I took part in the London 2012 Bid presentation to the International Olympic Committee.

The Government will continue to seek opportunities to support and promote the bid as we believe that hosting the Games in 2012 will bring excellent benefits to sport, our young people and to communities throughout the UK.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans she has to involve Cabinet ministers in the promotion of London's Olympic bid; and what plans she has to promote London's Olympic bid nationwide. [187133]

Tessa Jowell: The Government wholeheartedly supports the bid and believes that hosting the Games in 2012 will bring excellent benefits to sport, our young people and to communities throughout the UK.

London 2012 will be making a presentation to the full Cabinet. In addition the Misc 25 Cabinet Committee was set up to consider issues relating to the London 2012 bid.

I will continue to work with my ministerial colleagues to help to develop and promote a winning UK bid.

Art Galleries

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which planned new art galleries have been guaranteed Arts Council funding; and for how many years the funding has been guaranteed. [187977]

Estelle Morris: Arts Council England has awarded over £14 million of lottery capital funds to new visual arts projects since 1 January 1998. Funds are allocated at the beginning of the project and are drawn down over a period of time until the project is completed.

Details of new awards guaranteed by Arts Council England are set out in the table.

Organisation name	Location	Arts Council England region	Approved amount (£)
Future Factory and Angel Row	Nottingham	East Midlands	5,000,000
ACME Studios	London	London	2,000,000
Whitechapel Art Gallery	London	London	500,000
Waygood Gallery	Newcastle	North East	750,000
Storey Gallery	Lancaster	North West	693,600
Newlyn Art Gallery	Penzance	South West	1,200,000
Sherborne House	Sherborne	South West	288,860
Centre for Creative Arts	Wakefield	Yorkshire	4,000,000

Note:
Table supplied by Arts Council England.





 
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BBC Charter

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions the Government has had with the BBC regarding plans to renew the Charter. [186859]

Tessa Jowell: Officials have conducted extensive discussions with the BBC and others since the launch of Charter review, and I have met the Chairman of the BBC Governors twice recently.

CSV Lending Time Project

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what assessment she has made of the CSV Lending Time project to develop volunteer involvement in the library services of six local authorities; [187834]

(2) what assessment she has made of how the lessons learned from the CSV Lending Time pilot projects can be transferred to and adopted by other local authorities; [187835]

(3) whether she has requested reports on the CSV Lending Time pilot schemes from the local authorities involved; [187836]

(4) what plans she has to ensure long-term support for the CSV Lending Time pilot projects. [187837]

Estelle Morris: The Lending Time project was evaluated by Shared Intelligence who published a final report in June 2004. This report outlines lessons learned from the project and provides a series of key recommendations to develop volunteer involvement with public libraries. All of the pilot projects had an opportunity to contribute to the evaluation so separate reports from each local authority were not requested. The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) will use the lessons learned from this project in the development of a new work programme to establish how libraries can most effectively support civic renewal and engage with communities in shaping and delivering services that meet local needs. Community Service Volunteers who led the Lending Time project will appoint someone to a post, funded by MLA through Framework for the Future, the Government's strategy to improve public libraries, to take this work forward until March 2006.

The aim of the project was to explore the ways in which volunteering could be involved in libraries' work in a long-term and sustainable manner to enhance the service using existing financial resources. The pilots have now been completed and there is no further central funding for them. It is for the local authorities involved in the project to decide whether or not to continue funding.

European Culture/Languages

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the Department is spending in 2004–05 on promoting knowledge of other European cultures and languages in the entertainment sector. [188301]

 
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Estelle Morris: My Department does not monitor spending in the way this question suggests. However, one example we do know of where Lottery money has been used to promote knowledge of European cultures and languages is the UK Film Council. A total of £2,109,102 has been spent in 2004/05 in the following ways:
UK Film Council Funding 2004–5

Scheme	Detail	Amount Invested 2004–5 £ million
Print and Advertising Fund	Support distribution of Specialised films, including European and Foreign Language films	1,000,000
Co-Production	Lila dit sa (France) -produced last year but paid within period, and for release within period	400,000
Co-Production	Innocense (France) produced last year but paid within period, and for release within period	397,330
Co-Production	Only Human (Spain)	298,772
Co-Production Tournament	Pilot forum between UK and Scandinavia to promote good practise and understanding of national film culture and talent. A huge success, so more planned.	13,000
Total:		2,109,102

Freeview

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which areas of the South-West Bedfordshire constituency are unable to receive Freeview; and when she expects all areas in the constituency to be able to receive this service. [188246]

Estelle Morris: Ofcom do not hold data on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) coverage in individual constituencies. However, according to Ofcom, Freeview coverage in South-West Bedfordshire is patchy, with coverage from both the Oxford and Sandy Heath Transmitters.

At present around 73 per cent. of UK households can access DTT services, but the Government are committed to ensuring that at Switchover everyone who can currently get the main public service broadcasting channels in analogue form (BBC 1 and 2, ITV, Channel 4/S4C and Channel 5) can receive them on digital systems.

Much progress has been made in the discussions between the Government, Ofcom and the Public Service Broadcasters and while the broadcasters have not reached a full consensus on the optimum timetable, some—including the BBC—have suggested that 2012 may be the most appropriate date for the completion of Switchover.

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