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26 Mar 2007 : Column 1246W—continued


26 Mar 2007 : Column 1247W

Transport

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the timetable for the draft Transport Bill. [129095]

Dr. Ladyman: The draft Road Transport Bill is due to be published later in the spring.

Vehicle Emissions

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport by what date he expects to approve technology and testing standards for equipment that could be fitted to vehicles to abate emissions of nitrogen oxide in relation to the enforcement to Euro IV standards. [129855]

Dr. Ladyman: Euro IV standards are mandatory for all new cars, vans, lorries and buses registered in the United Kingdom, and indeed Europe. Test procedures are therefore already in place for type approval to these standards.

Diesel lorries and buses meeting earlier Euro standards are eligible for reduced road tax if they have been retrofitted to reduce their particulate emissions (but not NOx emissions) to Euro IV levels. Such retrofit emissions control devices are approved through the Reduced Pollution Certificate scheme.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has recently announced that the Reduced Pollution Certificate scheme will be extended to offer reduced road tax to lorries and buses meeting the Euro V standards ahead of the date that this becomes mandatory (1 October 2009). Euro V differs from Euro IV solely in terms of the limits on oxides of nitrogen emissions. The exact details of the requirements for issuing Reduced Pollution Certificates to Euro V compliant vehicles, including any test procedures required, have not yet been decided.

Culture, Media and Sport

Departments: Postal Services

Mr. Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which postal companies handle mail dispatched by her Department and its agencies. [128246]

Mr. Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport uses the following postal companies: Royal Mail, IDS (Interdepartmental Dispatch Service), Parcelforce and City Sprint. Our executive agency, the Royal Parks, uses the following postal companies: Royal Mail and City Sprint.

Departments: Recruitment

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department spent on newsprint recruitment advertising in each of the last five years; and which newspapers it used for such purposes over that period. [129090]


26 Mar 2007 : Column 1248W

Mr. Lammy: The cost of newsprint advertising cannot be easily separated from other recruitment expenditure without disproportionate cost.

Senior posts are typically advertised in The Times or The Guardian, and, if appropriate, the specialist press. More junior positions are advertised in the London press.

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many vacancies there are within her Department. [129091]

Mr. Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has 12 vacancies currently.

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department has spent on recruitment in the last five years, broken down by (a) costs incurred directly by her Department, (b) costs incurred through the employment of recruitment agencies and agents and (c) other costs. [129092]

Mr. Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has paid the following amounts on the recruitment of permanent staff in the last five years:

£

2001-02

27,079

2002-03

115,369

2003-04

70,786

2004-05

34,931

2005-06

130,980


A breakdown of these amounts as requested could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.

Gaming Clubs

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether (a) the Chairman and (b) other members of the Casino Advisory Panel read the Joint Committee's Report on the Gambling Bill during their deliberations on the award of casino licences. [127179]

Tessa Jowell [holding answer 13 March 2007]: The Chairman and members of the Casino Advisory Panel read the report of the Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill: Draft Gambling Bill Session 2003-2004 Volumes I to III and Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill: Draft Gambling Bill (Regional Casinos) Volumes I and II and used this information to inform their conclusions.

Gaming Clubs: Licensing

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many regional casinos must be licensed in the pilot scheme in order to comply with the EU legislation relating to freedom of enterprise. [129037]

Mr. Caborn: The Government are satisfied that the Gambling Act 2005 complies with EU law. The Act provides for three new categories of casinos: one regional casino, eight large and eight small casinos.


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National Lottery: Grants

Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of funding provided by each lottery distributor went to voluntary and community sector organisations in each of the last five years. [129155]

Mr. Caborn [holding answer 22 March 2007]: This information is not available in detail for all lottery distributors. However, the information that we do have suggests that distributors channel a significant amount of their funding through the voluntary and community sector (VCS).

For example the Heritage Lottery Fund estimates that in 2005-06, 55 per cent. of its lottery awards were made to the third sector. Its estimates for the previous four years are 39 per cent. in 2004-05, 51 per cent. in 2003-04, 45 per cent. in 2002-03 and 50 per cent. in 2001-02.

The Arts Council England estimates that in 2005-06, it awarded approximately 60 per cent. of its budget to the VCS.

Sport England estimates that around 30 per cent. of its funding has gone to the VCS over the lifetime of the lottery.

Since 2004-05, the total annual Community Fund budget and approximately 40 per cent. of the New Opportunities Fund budget has been allocated to the voluntary and community sector. From 2006-07, the Big Lottery Fund made a new undertaking to allocate 60-70 per cent. of its total budget to the voluntary and community sector and will be reporting on its performance against this target in its annual report.

Olympic Delivery Authority

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the (a) roles and (b) pay grades are of (i) Board and (ii) Committee members of the Olympic Delivery Authority. [129246]

Mr. Caborn: The roles of the Board members and Committee members of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) are detailed in the Management Statement and the Standing Orders and Terms of Reference for each established Committee (Audit, Communications, Finance, Planning, Remuneration and Risk). These can be found on the ODA’s website at www.london2012.com. Remuneration for the chairman's post is set at £300,000 per annum pro rata and requires a two to three day per week time commitment. Other Board members and Committee members are remunerated at the rate of £500 per day for each whole day or half day that they spend on ODA business.

Olympic Games

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will estimate the likely effect on lottery resources available to voluntary and community bodies of national lottery funding for the 2012 Olympic Games. [125649]


26 Mar 2007 : Column 1250W

Tessa Jowell: The Government and the Big Lottery Fund have agreed that the fund's resources for the voluntary and community sector will be protected. They will continue to receive £2 billion, as they expect, from the Big Lottery Fund between now and 2012.

The voluntary and community sector also receives lottery funding from distributors for the other good causes, the arts, heritage and sport. At this stage it is not possible to estimate the effect on this funding of the recently revised Olympic budget. No decisions have been taken by Arts Council England or the Heritage Lottery Fund about possible adaptations to their lottery programmes. They intend to honour all existing commitments and they remain committed to supporting the voluntary and community sectors in their fields. Furthermore, a significant proportion of Sport England's investment is directed to the voluntary and community sector and I expect this to continue also. My Department will also be working closely with all distributors to ensure they are able to fully benefit from the many opportunities London 2012 will afford.

Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will break down by area of planned expenditure the £390 million allocated for sport in the public sector funding package for the 2012 Olympics. [129382]

Tessa Jowell [holding answer 23 March 2007]: The £388 million in the public sector funding package allocated for investment in non Olympic Delivery Authority provision comprises: £290 million from the Sports Lottery for investment in elite and community sport; a £66 million contribution to the Paralympics costs; and £32 million for other non Olympic Delivery Authority costs.

Olympic Games: Greater London

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether her Department has benchmarked the expenditure on administrative costs accrued by the Olympic Delivery Authority in relation to the construction of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games against the administrative budgets for previous Olympic Games; and if she will make a statement. [128412]

Tessa Jowell: Administration costs are specific to the particular state of the labour market in each country. We have not therefore benchmarked the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA’s) administration costs against those for previous Olympic Games. We will however, continue to press down on those costs to ensure that they are contained within the budget agreed.

The total cost of the ODA’s programme delivery budget represents around 10 per cent. Of the total costs of the ODA programme, which is consistent with industry norms for a project of this scale, complexity and concentration.

Sports: Finance

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much (a) the
26 Mar 2007 : Column 1251W
Government and (b) the Big Lottery Fund spent on elite sport, including facilities and major events, in each of the last five years; and how much is planned to be spent in each of the next five years. [129088]

Mr. Caborn: UK Sport is the Government's lead agency for elite sport in the UK and a lottery distributor. The table provides details of the level of Government and national lottery funding to UK Sport over the last five years.

£
Exchequer funding Lottery funding Total

2002-03

5,100,000

22,100,000

27,200,000

2003-04

11,500,000

17,700,000

29,200,000

2004-05

16,400,000

14,300,000

30,700,000

2005-06

16,300,000

15,700,000

32,000,000

2006-07

35,400,000

40,500,000

75,900,000


Over the next five years UK Sport plans to invest approximately £508.6 million of Exchequer and lottery money in elite sport.

Sport England provides some funding for English non-Olympic sports at elite level and, prior to April 2006, also provided elite funding to English Olympic sports. This funding was wholly from the lottery and was made via Sport England's world class programmes. This ran between1997 and 2005 and a total of £236,679,512 was provided over this period.

Since 1 April 2005, Sport England's investment in national governing bodies (NGBs) has been made via whole sport or one stop plans. Between 2005 and 2009 Sport England estimates that £59 million will be distributed to support elite sport

On 9 March Sport England launched its proposals for NGB investment between 2009 and 2013. This will determine future funding for non-Olympic elite sports.

The plan is to have funding agreements in place by March 2008.

Figures from Sport England show that the following capital amounts have been spent to build or refurbish elite sports facilities (defined for this purpose as the English institutes of sport and the national sports centres) over the period 02-03 to 06-07:

£
Exchequer funding Lottery funding Total

2002-03

0

24,792,379

24,792,379

2003-04

100,000

3,525,565

3,625,565

2004-05

391,000

49,833,172

50,224,172

2005-06

1,117,000

0

1,117,000

2006-07

624,000

0

624,000


In addition, DCMS, Sport England and the London Development Agency have contributed £161 million (£120 million Lottery and £41 million Exchequer) towards the cost of the Wembley Stadium project which opened its doors for the first time on 17 March
26 Mar 2007 : Column 1252W
2007; and Sport England and DCMS have contributed £11 million towards the cost of the Lee Valley athletics centre (£7 million lottery and £4 million Exchequer) which opened formally in January 2007.

Sport England anticipates spending an additional £3 million in the period up to 2007-08 on the national sports centres.

Funding on elite sports facilities beyond 2007-08 will be subject to the outcomes of the comprehensive spending review.

UK Sport distributes lottery funding each year, through the world class events programme, to support NGBs’ bidding and staging costs for major sporting events. Between 2002 and 2006 UK Sport invested £1.6 million a year in this programme. From 2007 it will be investing £3.3 million a year.

The big lottery fund money has not allocated any funding to support elite sport.


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