§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the Government spent per head of population on supporting sport in(a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in the last financial year; what the planned figure is for 2000–01; and what assessment he has made of such spending in other EU member states. [127127]
§ Kate HoeyThe information requested by the hon. Member is included in the table.
Exchequer and Lottery funding for sport is channelled primarily through the four home nation sports councils (Sport England, SportScotland, Sports Council for Wales, Sports Council for Northern Ireland) and the UK Sports Council (UK Sport). Funding is also provided to the Football Licensing Authority, which is charged with ensuring the implementation of Government policy regarding grounds at which designated football matches are played. Support for sport and recreation is also provided by local Government expenditure.
No direct comparison of expenditure on sport by EU member states has been made by my Department or the Sports Councils. Meaningful comparisons are difficult because of the way in which sport is structured and financed from country to country.
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2000–01 (Plans) Population(1998 Census) Exchequer funding (£) Lottery draw-down forecasts (£)2 Total forecast (£) Per capita expenditure forecast (£) England/Sport England 49,495,000 37,973,000 355,500,000 393,473,000 7.95 Scotland/Sports Scotland 5,120,000 10,309,000 30,600,000 40,909,000 7.99 Wales/Sports Council for Wales 2,933,000 7,417,000 14,281,000 21,698,000 7.40 Northern Ireland/Sports Council for Northern Ireland 1,689,000 2,322,000 10,230,000 12,552,000 7.43 UK Sport3 — 12,600,000 23,060,000 35,660,000 — Football Licensing Authority — 900,000 — 900,000 — Total4 59,237,000 71,521,000 433,671,000 505,192,000 8.53 1 The figures are taken from the National Lottery Awards database which uses information supplied by the distributing bodies. 2 Data are based on information provided by the distributing bodies. 3 UK Sport provides support to those sporting programmes and policies that are of benefit for the United Kingdom as a whole. It is not possible to determine the amount of benefit provided by UK Sport to sport in individual home countries. 4 In addition, Local Authority estimated outturn on current and capital expenditure on sport and recreation activities in 1999–2000 totalled £767 million in England and £55 million in Wales. Expenditure details for 1999–2000 for Scotland and Northern Ireland and Planning figures for 2000–01 are not available.