§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions for what reasons his Department has decided to terminate its financial support for Mediation UK. [43195]
§ Angela EagleMy Department made grants to Mediation UK amounting to £99,900 from the Environmental Action Fund (EAF) between April 1994 and March 1998. These grants helped Mediation UK establish, accredit and develop local mediation centres. In 1997 Mediation UK made an application for three more years of core support from the EAF. My Ministerial colleagues and I carefully considered this, along with all other applications. However there were vastly more high quality applications than we could possibly support, given the resources available for the Fund. Regretfully14W Mediation UK was one organisation to which we were not able to offer further assistance through the EAF in 1998–99.