§ Mr. ChaytorTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what guidelines he has issued to the Millennium National Bid Committee relating to the provision of information to applicants whose projects are not supported by the Committee. [62581]
§ Janet Anderson[holding answer 9 December 1998]The Millennium Festival is an initiative involving eleven of the National Lottery distributing bodies. Decisions on applications for grant under Round 1 (–5,000 and over) were taken individually by each of the participating distributors according to its own criteria, rules and procedures. There is no "Millennium National Bid Committee" with a decision-making function in relation to bids, although the participating distributors do co-ordinate their Festival programmes through joint meetings of a Millennium Festival Committee for each country of the United Kingdom. These committees have an advisory function only, and focus on strategic issues such as co-ordination of procedures and timetables, funding priorities, geographical patterns of distribution and joint publicity and marketing. No Ministerial guidance has been issued to the Committee.