§ Mr. WatsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will give details of the English areas which will benefit from the targeted Lottery initiative she announced on 27 June 2001; and if she will indicate how these areas were chosen. [39862]
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§ Tessa JowellThe Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund have selected 51 areas in England to benefit from the initiative. These are Ashfield, Barking & Dagenham, Barnsley, Basildon, Blackpool, Blyth Valley, Bolsover, Bolton, Bournemouth, Brent, Burnley, Darlington, Derby, Doncaster, Dudley, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Enfield, Great Yarmouth, Hyndburn, Kingston upon Hull, Kirklees, Knowsley, Luton, North East Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Oldham, Pendle, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Rochdale, Rotherham, Salford, Sandwell, Sefton, Solihull, St. Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Swindon, Tameside, Telford and Wrekin, Tendring, Thanet, Trafford, Wakefield, Walsall, Waltham Forest, Wansbeck, Waveney, West Lancashire, Wigan and Wirral.
The criteria I announced for the scheme were that areas should be both deprived and have received less lottery funding than other parts of the country. To select the English Fair Share areas, the two distributors have analysed which of the 100 most deprived local authority districts have received less than average funding from the Community Fund and which have received less than average funding from the other Lottery distributors collectively. Areas that have received less than average funding from either the Community Fund or from the other Distributors collectively will receive direct support from Fair Share.
1541WThe Fair Share initiative is one of several targeted initiatives operated by the Lottery distributors. Government will continue to encourage distributors to ensure that parts of the country benefit from Lottery funding.