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Gambling Act

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what measures will be used under the Gambling Act 2005 to work with cultural and sporting bodies to tackle illegal gambling. [57218]

Mr. Caborn: The Gambling Act 2005 makes it a key objective of the Gambling Commission to keep gambling crime free, and introduces a new criminal offence of cheating. The Commission will work closely with sporting and other bodies to minimise potential threats to the integrity of events upon which bets are struck.

Section 30 of the Gambling Act provides for the Gambling Commission, sporting and other bodies to share information relating to the exercise of the Commission's functions. The Commission may also, through licence conditions, require British betting operators to work with sporting bodies and the Commission to identify and track unusual or suspicious betting patterns.

Under the Act, the Gambling Commission has the power to suspend bets on any event where there is a suspicion of cheating, while they investigate. The Commission is able to void bets entirely if it concludes that the outcome of an event has been fixed.
 
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John Donne (Portrait)

Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions there have been between her Department and the Treasury concerning making funds available to secure the portrait of John Donne for the National Portrait Gallery. [56026]

James Purnell [holding answer 6 March 2006]: The Department and the Treasury have not discussed the matter of funding for the acquisition of the portrait of John Donne for the National Portrait Gallery. The sources of funding for the purchase available to the Gallery include grant-in-aid allocated by the Department, self-generated income, including bequests and donations, and contributions from grant-making bodies. Government has not ring-fenced any grant-in-aid to national museums and galleries for acquisitions since 1992–93. This allows the Trustees the freedom to decide how much of their grant-in-aid should be devoted to purchases for the collections.

The portrait of John Donne is on offer to the National Portrait Gallery by private treaty sale on the instructions of the Executors of the late Lord Lothian. This sale to a public gallery would be able to take advantage of the normal arrangements whereby a public institution can take advantage of the remission of any tax that would otherwise have been payable on the sale.

Following tax remissions, the amount that the National Portrait Gallery must raise by the end of May is £1,652,000. The Gallery has launched a public appeal, with a generous opening contribution from The Art Fund of £200,000 and since then, some £25,000 has been contributed by members of the public. The Gallery has also made an application to the National Heritage Memorial Fund for a contribution towards the costs of acquisition.

Both the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) and the Heritage Lottery fund have a good track record on funding acquisitions. Between them they have awarded almost £200 million in grants for acquisitions over the past 10 years. The NHMF is topped up each year by a tranche of grant-in-aid which currently stands at £5 million, but is set to rise to £10 million in 2007–08.

National Lottery

Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had with the Lottery distributing bodies on funding of capital projects undertaken by voluntary and community sector organisations, with particular reference to village halls. [56667]

Mr. Caborn: To date, the Lottery has awarded over £258 million to village and community halls. The Big Lottery Fund will make £50 million available over three years through a community buildings programme to benefit projects across England. I have no plans to meet them to discuss this at present.

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what grants have been awarded to stage (a) cultural and (b) sporting events in the UK
 
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from National Lottery funds in each of the last five years; and what the tax income to HM Treasury from those grant-aided events was. [57217]

Mr. Caborn: Information on all Lottery awards is available from the Department's Lottery Awards Database, searchable at www.lottery.culture.gov.uk, which uses information supplied by the Lottery distributors.

However, cultural and sporting events are not identified as categories on this database. The information could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.

St. Helena

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) how much her Department has spent supplying BBC television to residents of St. Helena for each of the last eight years; [56804]

(2) how much has been collected via television licensing fees from St. Helena in each of the last eight years. [56867]

James Purnell: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not supply any television services to St. Helena and has not therefore incurred any expenditure on such services in the last eight years.

No television licence fee revenue is collected in St.Helena, as the television licensing provisions of theCommunications Act 2003 do not extend to the territory, nor does St. Helena operate its own television licensing regime.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Antisocial Behaviour

Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how much was provided to local authorities to tackle antisocial behaviour in (a) Swindon and (b) England in the last year for which figures are available; [55838]

(2) what steps he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to tackle (i) antisocial behaviour and (ii) antisocial behaviour outside nightclubs and public houses in Swindon; and if he will make a statement. [55856]

Hazel Blears: Tackling antisocial behaviour is a cross-departmental issue and many Government Departments contribute to this agenda. A wide range of funding streams across Government have a positive impact on tackling antisocial behaviour. For example Neighbourhood Renewal programmes which focus on the most deprived areas and give practitioners and local communities a real opportunity to turn their neighbourhoods around; DFES through their work on schools and parenting contribute to preventing problems escalating and ensuring families get the support they need; DEFRA and their work in tackling litter and fly tipping which can often blight neighbourhoods where antisocial behaviour and crime can take hold; and DCMS who provide the opportunity to divert young people from the destructive and
 
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damaging involvement in antisocial behaviour. The Department for Constitutional Affairs also contributes to ensure a swift and effective criminal justice system for dealing with the perpetrators of antisocial behaviour activity. In 2005–06, the Home Office has allocated £75,000 to Swindon to tackle antisocial behaviour. £40,000 has been used to fund Operation Graffiti—a multi-agency initiative to tackle environmental crime and specifically the issue of graffiti. £10,000 has been used to implement the Its Your Call Anti Social Behaviour reporting line and ensure that it is resourced between 9 am and 5 pm during week days. £25,000 has been used to work with the most anti social families. The Home Office has specifically allocated £25,000 to every Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in both England and Wales to fund an antisocial behaviour co-ordinator. This amounts to £9.4 million per annum. We have already provided guidance and support to local agencies including local authorities to help them to target resources and powers to protect the public and ensure that antisocial behaviour is tackled, not tolerated. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 has been fundamental to our work which has changed the culture of public services and protected our communities. However, while attitudes are shifting, the public's concern is not yet adequately reflected in the priorities of all our services. The Respect Programme will now take this further so that local services are organised so that they respond swiftly and effectively to the problems that communities face today. People need to see and feel thata difference can be made. Swindon received £3,000 from the Police Standards Unit as part of the third Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign (AMEC). A number of local initiatives are underway to disperse people in antisocial behaviour hotspots in the town centre, including the proposed closure of John Street and patrols of licensed premises. The Government are determined to target those individuals whose abuse of alcohol results in causing disorder in our towns and cities. We have recently undertaken our third Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign to crack down on such behaviour. We have also introduced a range of new powers through the Licensing Act 2003 to deal with the problems of alcohol misuse. In addition, the Violent Crime Reduction Bill will introduce a new civil order—a Drinking Banning Order—which will allow for the exclusion from the area concerned of individuals aged 16 or over who are responsible for alcohol-related disorder.

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