HC Deb 02 July 1999 vol 334 cc300-1W
Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if governing bodies of sports currently with a unified Great Britain governing body will need to split into English, Scottish and Welsh bodies in order to have guaranteed eligibility for funding for the World Class Start and World Class Potential programmes from the English, Scottish and Welsh sports councils. [89141]

Mr. Banks

The World Class Potential and World Class Start development programmes have been formulated by Sport England to support young athletes in England. Other home countries have developed their own Lottery Sports Funded talent development programmes. British or UK governing bodies will not need to separate into English, Welsh, or Scottish bodies in order to secure such development funding. They will need to identify the home country of each nominated athlete in order to direct a funding request to the relevant Sports Council.

Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what are the criteria set by the Government and the United Kingdom Sports Council for sports bodies to be included in the World Class Potential Programme; and on what basis basketball and hang-gliding are excluded. [89140]

Mr. Banks

Both basketball and hang-gliding are eligible to apply for Lottery Sports funding from the World Class Potential Programme. However, as World Class Potential funds are limited it may not be possible to meet the demands from all eligible sports, and priority will be given on the basis of criteria established by Sport England as the statutory distributor of Lottery Funds for Sport.

I understand that Sport England's criteria include: the status of the primary competition; the likely degree of sporting success to be achieved within 10 years; and the significance to the public of both a particular sport and any likely competitive success.

Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) if the new financial directions for the allocation of Lottery funding will permit commercial organisations to obtain funds from the Lottery in order to fund non-commercial sporting activities; [89144]

(2) if, under the terms of the new financial directions for the allocation of Lottery funding, professional sporting bodies will be able to obtain funds for the non-professional side of their game. [89143]

Mr. Banks

Commercial organisations and professional sporting bodies are eligible to receive Lottery funds provided the projects for which Lottery funding is sought are intended to promote the public good, and are not intended primarily for private gain.