§ 2.43 p.m.
§ BARONESS BURTON OF COVENTRYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in view of the considerable interest felt by the governing bodies of sport on the question of grant-aiding teams taking part in overseas sports events, they will outline the considerations likely to be taken into account when applications are received by the Advisory Committee concerned.]
THE EARL OF BESSBOROUGHMy Lords, the considerations likely to be taken into account by the Advisory Committee will be as follows: (a) the prestige value of the competition in which the team is to take part; (b) the value of the competition from the standpoint of relations between Great Britain and the country or countries 1029 concerned; (c) the importance of the event; (d) the popular appeal of the sport in question; (e) sponsorship or support by a national sporting organisation; (f) status of the applicant organisation in the sporting world, at home and overseas; (g) ability of the sponsoring body to attract substantial support from other sources (the aim of the Government scheme being to encourage and not to replace, voluntary contributions); and (h) the general programme of overseas competitions covered by a sponsoring organisation. The Committee may well find that with experience other criteria emerge or some of the above considerations may need to be modified.
§ BARONESS BURTON OF COVENTRYMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl for having sent me the application form for which I asked, enumerating all these points. But is he aware that it is the "other criteria" of which I am slightly nervous? Could the noble Earl just assure the House on two points? First, will it be a question of athletic ability that determines whether teams take part in events overseas, or will it be a case of political opinion on the part of a Ministry or Department concerned? The second point is this: does the noble Earl recall that on this list asking for information from the organisations, "schools excluded" is expressly stated, so that the Ministry of Education would seem to be superfluous?
THE EARL OF BESSBOROUGHMy Lords, of course athletic considerations will be fully taken into account. In regard to the adjective "political" which was used by the noble Baroness, I am not quite clear what she means; but I suppose that it relates to the sort of relations which we may have with the country concerned—I think that is probably correct. This was one of the reasons underlying the Government's decision of November 14: that they accepted the argument that visits of United Kingdom sports teams to overseas countries could sometimes be of value in regard to good relations with overseas countries, and the likely value of a particular visit should therefore be taken into account.