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LEADER OF THE HOUSE

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Leader of the House if he will bring forward proposals for parliamentary questions which have not been answered by the end of a parliamentary session to be carried over to the next session; and if he will make a statement. [198173]

Mr. Hain: No. I refer my hon. Friend to the written ministerial statement I made on 21 July 2004, Official Report, column 35WS, on "I will write replies".

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Advertising Standards

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when her Department expects to receive from the Broadcast Committee on Advertising Practices a draft of the interpretative guidance for the Advertising Standards Authority's final amendment to the Advertising Standards Code; and if she will make a statement. [196765]

Estelle Morris: The Department expects to receive the draft guidance at the time of the public consultation which is due to begin in early 2005. Ofcom published their revised rules on alcohol advertising on 1 November. These were their final amendments to the Advertising Standards Code before responsibility passed to the Broadcasting Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) of the Advertising Standards Authority under the new co-regulatory arrangements. The new rules take effect from 1 January 2005 with temporary exemptions for campaigns already made. Full implementation for all broadcast advertising will be from 1 October 2005. BCAP plan to begin a public consultation on draft guidance notes for interpreting and implementing the new rules in early 2005 and will submit the guidance to Ofcom for final approval before publication.

Crossrail

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will reply to e-mail
 
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correspondence from the Romford Crossrail Action Group regarding the impact of the proposed Crossrail depot on local playing fields. [197489]

Mr. Caborn: There is no record of this e-mail correspondence having been received by the Department. A copy of the letter has been requested and a response will be sent in due course.

The address for e-mail correspondence to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is: [e-mail]

Governing Bodies (Sport)

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she is taking to assist the modernisation of national governing bodies for sports; and if she will make a statement. [197425]

Mr. Caborn: Since 2001 UK Sport has administered a modernisation programme designed to help national governing bodies (NGBs) of sport to become more efficient and effective. Further to this, Game Plan, the joint DCMS-Strategy Unit report published in December 2002, recommended the implementation of a new approach to NGB funding and planning to further promote independent, modernised NGBs. As a result, from April 2005 modernisation will be mainstreamed into the One Stop Plans agreed between UK Sport and the NGBs of UK-wide priority sports. From April 2005, Sport England will operate Whole Sport Plans with the NGBs of England-wide priority sports. Whole Sport Plans will provide a blueprint for the sport from grass roots right through to the elite level.

Horse Racing

Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on her policy on funding of horse racing. [197904]

Mr. Caborn: Parliament has just enacted the Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Act on the expectation that horseracing should be able to finance itself without the need for a statutory levy.

Libraries

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) how many libraries she will visit in her official capacity in each of the next 12 months; [192668]

(2) how many libraries she has visited in her official capacity since 2001. [192672]

Tessa Jowell: In the last 12 months, in my official capacity, I have visited the Ideastore in Bow, the central library in Bournemouth, the Swiss Cottage library and the British Library. I have also visited the Carnegie library and Norwood library in my constituency.

My diary is currently being planned for next year.

Information for 2001–03 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Licensing Act

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the
 
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likely impact on community and amateur sports clubs of the licensing charges announced on 4 November; and if she will make a statement. [197449]

Mr. Caborn: The fee levels to be set by the Secretary of State under the terms of the Licensing Act 2003 have not been finalised. On 4 November, we announced the publication of a consultation on fee levels. We welcome the views of sports clubs as part of that public consultation, which ends on 23 December. All responses will be carefully considered before the fees are finalised. The proposal is that fees for grant of a club premises certificate will range between £80 and £500 and annual charges between £40 and £225. These fee levels have been proposed to ensure that licensing authorities are able to recover fully their costs of administration, inspection and enforcement under the terms of the Act and no more. In proposing fee levels and the allocation of premises to a band based on its non-domestic rateable value we have considered the impact of the approach on clubs, including community and amateur sports clubs. We do not therefore consider that the impact on such clubs would be significant. The Licensing Review that preceded the White Paper on licensing reform showed that alcohol licensing fees have been set too low for many years, and it would be wholly wrong for central or local taxation to continue to subsidise the consumption of alcohol. Consequently, we do not believe that the best way to promote sport is through Government subsidy of sports club bars. The Government's commitment to amateur sport is illustrated by the introduction in 2002 of a scheme which gives registered Community Amateur Sports Clubs mandatory rate relief at 80 per cent. and tax relief through Gift Aid on donations from individuals. So far the scheme has given amateur sports clubs an extra £5 million.

This is in addition to the £60 million we have put into the Community Club Development Programme.

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) whether a regulatory impact assessment was carried out on the voluntary sports clubs sector in respect of increased charges arising from the Licensing Act 2003; [198052]

(2) whether a regulatory impact assessment was carried out on the voluntary sports clubs sector in respect of the increased charges from the Licensing Act 2003. [198310]

Mr. Caborn: Yes. Our estimates of fee levels were first publicised in the White Paper "Time for Reform: Proposals for the Modernisation of Our Licensing Laws" (CM 4696) on 10 April 2000, which included a regulatory impact assessment. A regulatory impact assessment, which also included estimates relating to fee levels, was also presented to Parliament with the Licensing Bill in November 2002, and was revised when the Bill entered the House of Commons in March 2003. In September 2004 a draft regulatory impact assessment was published with a consultation document on regulations to be made under the Licensing Act 2003. All of these documents are available in the Library of the House. For the purpose of the regulatory impact assessments, sports clubs are treated as members' clubs holding registration certificates under the Licensing Act 1964 and which expect to hold club premises certificates under the 2003 Act. Such clubs include as well as sports
 
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clubs, political clubs, working men's clubs, ex-services clubs, social clubs and others. There are approximately 20,000 such clubs. A further regulatory impact assessment will be presented with regulations relating to fee levels when they are made following the public consultation which began on 4 November. The consultation document enables any individual club to calculate precisely the fees it could expect to pay, under the proposals in the document, in respect of applications made for the grant and variation of a club premises certificate under the 2003 Act.

Minimum Pricing Scheme

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what advice she has received from the Office of Fair Trading regarding advice for local authorities on minimum pricing schemes in licensed premises; and if she will make a statement. [196767]

Mr. Caborn: Advice was taken from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in the preparation of the guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 to licensing authorities, which was published in July 2003. Their advice was reflected in paragraph 7.79 of the guidance (available at www.culture.gov.uk <http://www.culture.gov.uk>) and includes "The promotion of price fixing or the creation of cartels is unlawful, and there would also be serious risks of breaching competition law." We understand that the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and the Home Office have also consulted the OFT about this issue in connection with the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.

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