Draft Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (Winding Up) Order 2014
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
Blears, Hazel (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)
† Burns, Conor (Bournemouth West) (Con)
† Burt, Alistair (North East Bedfordshire) (Con)
Clwyd, Ann (Cynon Valley) (Lab)
† Coffey, Dr Thérèse (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)
Doran, Mr Frank (Aberdeen North) (Lab)
† Efford, Clive (Eltham) (Lab)
† Flynn, Paul (Newport West) (Lab)
† Grant, Mrs Helen (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport)
Holloway, Mr Adam (Gravesham) (Con)
† Jones, Mr Marcus (Nuneaton) (Con)
† Jones, Susan Elan (Clwyd South) (Lab)
† Leech, Mr John (Manchester, Withington) (LD)
† Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) (Lab)
† Mulholland, Greg (Leeds North West) (LD)
† Norman, Jesse (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)
Simpson, David (Upper Bann) (DUP)
† Spelman, Mrs Caroline (Meriden) (Con)
Oliver Coddington, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
First Delegated Legislation Committee
Monday 19 January 2015
[Annette Brooke in the Chair]
Draft Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (Winding Up) Order 2014
4.30 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mrs Helen Grant): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (Winding Up) Order 2014.
It is a pleasure, as always, to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Brooke. The draft order was laid before the House on 17 November. This statutory instrument will wind up the Olympic lottery distribution fund, otherwise known as the OLDF, and distribute the remaining funds. The order proposes that the remaining £69 million go to the national lottery distribution fund to be divided into the usual proportions: 40% to the health, education, environment and charities good causes; and 20% to the arts, heritage and sport good causes. That will ensure that the national lottery distributing bodies benefit from the funds. Given that all distributors were affected when funds were raised for the Olympics, that is the fairest approach.
The OLDF was established for the purposes of holding lottery funding for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. Lottery funds contributed hugely to the costs of staging this remarkable event. It is fair to say that, when first proposed, there was a certain amount of trepidation about using the national lottery to support the games. The decision was taken with cross-party support to use lottery funds in the belief that the benefits to the country—to sport, heritage, culture, tourism and regeneration—could be enormous.
It is clear to us now that any fears about the use of lottery funds were misplaced. The memories of that summer will remain with us for many years to come, from the feats of the elite athletes in our world-class stadiums to the extraordinary efforts of the thousands of volunteer games makers. More than that, the success of the games remains with us. They have inspired a generation, with 1.7 million more people playing sport once a week than when we won the bid. Volunteering has also increased, halting the steady decline since 2005.
The Government are absolutely committed to creating a lasting legacy from the games, one that has been hailed by the International Olympic Committee as a blueprint for future hosts, acknowledging that London and Great Britain will benefit from the games for a long time to come. The games were an immense success for the whole country and the return on the investment, funded in part by the lottery, is greater than the sum put in.
Last year, £79 million was transferred from the OLDF to the distributors under regulations. The £69 million remains in the fund to be transferred at wind up. In addition, up to £675 million will go back to distributors
from the sale of the land in the Olympic park from the early 2020s onwards. Lottery distributors will therefore receive a total of £823 million. That means around 38% of the total lottery funding available for the games is being returned to the lottery distributers, which is far more than was expected when the £9.3 billion public sector funding package for the games was set in 2007. That is in addition to the wider benefits from the investment in the games that I set out earlier.The order brings to a close one of the elements that supported the Olympic games. Through sharing the remaining funds across the distribution bodies in the usual proportions, it also represents the Government’s strong commitment to ensure that good causes are supported fairly and well into the future.
4.34 pm
Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Brooke.
Obviously, there is considerable cross-party agreement about the success of the Olympic games and everything that went into setting them up and making them such a big success. May I ask one or two questions of clarification? This is a sensible move to wind up that body and to transfer the sum of money to the national lottery distribution fund but, as the Minister has said, there is £675 million outstanding. It was agreed that that would be repaid back in 2007 under a memorandum of understanding signed by the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Dame Tessa Jowell). As the Minister will know, there are a number of questions about when that money will be transferred. The Government agreed back in the summer that it would be paid over the next 20 to 25 years and that it would come, as originally agreed, from the sale of the assets in the Olympic park that relate to the Olympics.
With the winding up of this body, who will be responsible for ensuring that the money is transferred back to the lottery, and how do the Government intend to ensure value for money? There has been controversy about the values for which some of the assets have been sold and the potential for huge profits for the companies that have bought those assets in the Olympic park. Obviously, the Government will want to ensure that there is value for money for the taxpayer and the lottery, so will the Minister say exactly what mechanism is in place to ensure that there is value for money, looking over the shoulder of the Mayor and the London Legacy Development Corporation? Will she also say who will be responsible for ensuring that the money is transferred? Is it the Mayor of London or is it the London Legacy Development Corporation, or will they be responsible for transferring it to the Treasury, which will then return it? What mechanism will be in place?
Will the Minister confirm that the £69.6 million is not part of the £675 million and that it has come from a sum of money that was transferred to bridge a gap in the finances for the development of the Olympic village? Is it in addition to the £675 million? Will she also confirm that, when these sums of money—the £79 million last year, this £69 million and then the £675 million—are finally transferred, the dealings on all outstanding sums of money relating to the national lottery’s contribution towards making the Olympics a success will finally be complete?
I welcome the order and the winding up of this body. It seems a sensible way forward, and I look forward to listening to the Minister’s answers to my questions.
4.38 pm
Mrs Grant: I thank the shadow Minister for his comments. He raised a number of issues, and I will do my best to deal with some of them. If there are any that I do not deal with, I will be happy to write to him in due course to clarify the precise position. There is an absolute commitment in place to ensure that the distributors get these sums of money back. There is a robust commitment in place between the Secretary of State and the Greater London authority. The Mayor of London’s MOU with the Department for Communities and Local Government, as the lead Department, reaffirmed the commitment recently, on 8 December 2014. The GLA will continue to plan to repay the lottery, in line with previous agreements. Therefore, I am very confident that that commitment is there.
With regard to the return of the money sooner, I know that that has been raised by some in the past. As the shadow Minister knows, the former Olympics Minister, the right hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood, made it very clear that the money would be returned on a progressive basis through land sales as the Olympic park was developed. That policy certainly has not changed. I can also confirm that the £69 million is not part of the £675 million. I hope that that helps to reassure the shadow Minister. As I said, if there are outstanding points—points that I have not picked up—I am happy to write to him, but in the meantime, I commend the order to the Committee.