| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
29 Jan 2007 : Column 109W—continued
Theatres
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2007, Official Report, column 1279W, on theatres, if she will break down the figures into grant in aid and lottery funding. [112340]
Mr. Lammy: The figures are as follows:
| £ million | |||
| Grant in aid | Lottery | Total | |
Tourism
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment her Department has made of the regional breakdown of spending by overseas visitors to the UK; and if she will make a statement. [111702]
Mr. Woodward: The following table shows the regional breakdown of spending by overseas visitors to the UK in 2005.
| Region | Spending (£ million) |
| (1 )Totals may include elements of expenditure that are not attributable to a particular region. Source: International Passenger Survey (ONS) | |
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many trips to the UK were made by tourists from overseas in each year since 1997; and if she will make a statement. [111704]
Mr. Woodward: The following table shows the number of visits to the UK by overseas residents since 1997.
| Total visits (Thousand) | |
| Source: International Passenger Survey (ONS) | |
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what steps her Department is taking to promote the UK internationally as a tourist destination; and if she will make a statement; [111705]
(2) what steps her Department is taking to promote domestic tourism within the UK; and if she will make a statement. [111706]
Mr. Woodward: The Department funds VisitBritain to market England to the British and Britain to the rest of the world. VisitBritain received £50 million in grant-in-aid for 2006-07 of which £13.4 million has been allocated for the purpose of domestic marketing. (VisitBritain's marketing activities include the EnglandNet project, which provides comprehensive information for both domestic and overseas visitors, with facilities for live booking of accommodation and other services.)
The Department works closely with regional and local government, supporting and promoting both domestic and international tourism. It currently contributes £3.6 million a year to the regional development agencies to support tourism in the regions, and £1.9 million a year to the Greater London Authority to support the Mayor's statutory tourism duties.
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment she has made of likely trends in levels of inbound tourism over the next three years. [111736]
Mr. Woodward: Visit Britain publishes forecasts for the volume and value of inbound tourism for the year ahead. These forecasts are approved by DCMS.
Forecasts released in November 2006 estimated that the volume and value of inbound tourism will grow by around 4 per cent. during 2007, with 32.5 million visitors expected to spend £15.8 billion. This is an aggregate forecast regardless of purpose of visit.
Full detail of the Visit Britain forecasts can be found at:
http://www.tourismtrade.org.uk/MarketIntelligenceResearch/TrendsForecasts.asp
I am arranging for details of VisitBritain Inbound Forecasts for 2007 to be placed in the House Libraries.
Due to the large number of factors that can influence the volume and value of inbound tourism
over the longer term, no specific UK forecasts have yet been calculated for 2008 and 2009. However, we could expect to see growth of 3 per cent. per annum in line with the UN World Tourism Organisation forecasts for the whole of Europe.
Union Flag
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2007 , Official Report, column 1043W, on the Union flag, if she will make arrangements to fly the Union flag on Government buildings every day of the year. [111889]
Mr. Lammy: There are no current plans to change the flag flying arrangements on Government buildings.
West Jesmond School
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2007, Official Report, column 1361W, on West Jesmond School, whether she has received representations from English Heritage on the spot-listing of West Jesmond School; and what decision she has reached. [111903]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 26 January 2007]: Advice on West Jesmond school was received from English Heritage on 22 January 2007. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will now consider this advice and we will inform the hon. Member as soon as a decision is reached.
Trade and Industry
BAE Systems
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the impact on the investment climate and business confidence in the UK of the decision to halt Serious Fraud Office investigations into alleged bribery by BAE Systems. [115159]
Margaret Hodge: The recent announcement by the Attorney-General indicated that no weight had been given to commercial or national economic interests in the SFO decision to halt the investigation into BAE Systems and the Al Yamamah contract.
The Government remain extremely serious about tackling corruption. This decision sets no precedent of any kind and was made on legitimate public interest grounds.
DFID has funded a new International Corruption Group. This will provide the UK with a dedicated resource to investigate allegations of corruption and bribery by a UK citizen or company anywhere in the world. It will bring together the experience of the Serious Fraud Office and Serious Organised Crime Agency with the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police.
The Serious Fraud Office is currently investigating a number of other cases (including some relating to BAE
Systems) where there are allegations of bribery or corruption abroad, as well as fraud. The Attorney-General has made clear to the director that he should pursue these cases vigorously and that no particular company is beyond the law or immune from action in this area.
I refer my hon. Friend to the oral statement made by my hon. Friend the Solicitor-General on 14 December 2006, Official Report, columns 1119-29:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cmhansrd/cm061214/debtext/61214-0021htm#column_1119
BBC
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much the North West Development Agency has spent in connection with the BBC's proposed move to Manchester and Salford since the BBC first announced its intention to move. [111264]
Margaret Hodge: To date, the North West Development Agency has spent approximately £488,000 on:
strategic economic analysis and making the business case;
facilitating the site selection process in conjunction with the BBC and local partners;
undertaking a detailed economic appraisal of the basis of the agency's investment to facilitate the mediacity.uk project;
coordinating the activities of the key stakeholders;
ensuring an appropriate contractual framework is in place for delivery of the mediacity.uk project;
contribution to the costs of a sector skills development manager to develop the opportunities resulting from the project.
Business Links
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the (a) budget and (b) expenditure was of Business Links on business advice and support in each financial year since 2000-01. [110967]
Margaret Hodge: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have funded the Business Link service since 2000. The budget allocations for this have been as follows:
| £ million | |
| Source: The Small Business Service Agency Annual Accounts and Reports. | |
Since April 2005, contracts for the delivery of Business Link services have been managed by the RDAs and provided by contracted organisations including chambers of commerce, private sector businesses and other non-departmental public sector bodies.
The aforementioned budgets represent only a portion of the total available to the service contractors. The total budget and expenditure by individual organisations can only be determined by the organisations themselves and I would encourage the hon. Member to approach them directly with this question.
It is worth noting that the budgets from the DTI are made available to the RDAs through their ‘single pot’ of money and are distributed in accordance with their regional economic strategies.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much programme expenditure sponsored by his Department was spent via each of the Government offices for the regions in the most recent year for which figures are available. [116762]
Margaret Hodge: The main programme expenditure sponsored by the DTI and spent via the Government offices is through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which is European Union money that is used to add value to projects supported under DTI programmes. In 2004-05, DTI spending on ERDF projects in each of the Government offices was:
| £ million | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |