Millennium Dome (Hansard, 17 January 2001)

§ Mr. Peter Ainsworth
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what information he received from(a) Mr. Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, (b) Mr. David James and (c) related parties concerning an offer to buy the site of the Millennium Dome. [144711]

§ Janet Anderson
[holding answer 11 January 2001]: The Government are currently in negotiation with Legacy plc, the second placed bidder in the competition for the future use of the Dome. If all goes well we hope to be in a position to exchange contracts in February. No offer has been received from Mr. Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, Mr. David James or any other related party to buy the site of the Dome. The Government have received an expression of interest from Mr. Gerbeau, but the rules of the competition do not allow the Government to treat with third parties while Legacy plc continue to have preferred bidder status.

§ Mr. Peter Ainsworth
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the ownership of each of the Millennium Dome's zones, together with his plans for their disposal, listing the beneficiaries of any sale proceeds in each case. [144715]

§ Janet Anderson
[holding answer 11 January 2001]: All except two of the Millennium Dome's zones are owned by the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC). The two not in NMEC's ownership are 'Journey' and 'Talk' which are owned by Ford and BT respectively. The content of the zones is a mixture of items owned outright by NMEC and items hired from third parties. The latter are being returned to their owners as the first priority of decommissioning. A range of NMEC assets are subject to private treaty sale and public auctions which are currently intended to be held between 27 February 2001 to 2 March 2001 at the Dome. The aim is that zone structures and assets not sold by private treaty or auction will be dismantled and disposed of during March, subject to the negotiations with Legacy plc proceeding to timetable and plan. The beneficiary of income from the asset disposals owned by NMEC will be NMEC. Any surplus achieved by NMEC, having regard to its assets and liabilities as a whole, will be passed to the Millennium Commission as repayment of Lottery grant.

§ Mr. Baker
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many visitors to the Millennium Dome(a) paid full prices, (b) paid a reduced price and (c) entered free in (i) November and (ii) December. [144709]

§ Janet Anderson
[holding answer 11 January 2001]: The New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC) has advised that it will be publishing full visitor attendance 225W numbers later in the year once the final accounts for the operational year and all the associated data have been audited. At this stage the NMEC has provided the following statistics, but the hon. Member will wish to note the caveats which have been set out in the footnotes.

November 2000 December 2000

Total free ¹ 54,446 145,749

Total discounted² 250,312 371,614

Total sponsors from discounted³ 16,284 17,540

Full price tickets ⁴ 82,358 219,681

Total attendance⁵ 387,117 737,044

¹ Includes free school visits, carers for disabled people, sponsor ticket allocation, accompanying teachers on paying school visits, coach drivers, Greenwich residents, NMEC guests and VIPs. November Free Schools=22,500, December Free Schools=89,500.

² This reflects a range of promotions and offers which are normal for the visitor attraction business and which are factored into the company's business strategy. For example, NMEC ran a number of offers and promotions with its sponsors for their customers and also ran a special ticket price for entry after 4.00pm. Key promotions with M&S, Boots, Tesco and BT have been undertaken. The Tesco half price promotion was redeemed in October, BT was redeemed in November and December.

³ Sponsor tickets were purchased and allocated per each individual sponsorship contract.

⁴ This number is an approximation and as such should be used for review purposes only. There is insufficient accuracy for them to be regarded as audited or validated information.

⁵ Total attendance does not take into account non-attendance by ticket purchasers. It represents visitor footfall via the admission system and not total tickets sold.

Note:
NMEC operated two different systems, one for Ticket Sales (Enta) and one for Admissions (ACS). The admissions system recorded total attendance, but did not show details of the attendance, i.e. purchase source of admission or monetary value of admission. Consequently figures for Free and Discounted tickets are derived from the ticketing system, whereas Total attendance is derived from the admission system.

§ Mr. Baker
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what independent valuations of the site of the Millennium Dome have been initiated by his Department. [145412]

§ Janet Anderson
[holding answer 16 January 2001]: My Department has undertaken no independent valuations of the Millennium Dome site. A pre-sale valuation of the Dome site has been undertaken in the context of the competition to identify a sustainable long term use for the Dome. This exercise has been led by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The Government estimate of the financial value of the site is commercially confidential while the process to secure a buyer continues.

	November 2000	December 2000
Total free ¹	54,446	145,749
Total discounted²	250,312	371,614
Total sponsors from discounted³	16,284	17,540
Full price tickets ⁴	82,358	219,681
Total attendance⁵	387,117	737,044
¹ Includes free school visits, carers for disabled people, sponsor ticket allocation, accompanying teachers on paying school visits, coach drivers, Greenwich residents, NMEC guests and VIPs. November Free Schools=22,500, December Free Schools=89,500.
² This reflects a range of promotions and offers which are normal for the visitor attraction business and which are factored into the company's business strategy. For example, NMEC ran a number of offers and promotions with its sponsors for their customers and also ran a special ticket price for entry after 4.00pm. Key promotions with M&S, Boots, Tesco and BT have been undertaken. The Tesco half price promotion was redeemed in October, BT was redeemed in November and December.
³ Sponsor tickets were purchased and allocated per each individual sponsorship contract.
⁴ This number is an approximation and as such should be used for review purposes only. There is insufficient accuracy for them to be regarded as audited or validated information.
⁵ Total attendance does not take into account non-attendance by ticket purchasers. It represents visitor footfall via the admission system and not total tickets sold.