§ 9. Alistair BurtTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the national lottery has raised to date; and how much has been spent in Bedfordshire. [43150]
§ Mr. CabornThe national lottery has raised £12.19 billion at the end of December 2001 with £34,087,878 awarded to Bedfordshire to date.
§ 19. Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the distribution of New Opportunities Fund national lottery money, with specific reference to demographic area. [43160]
§ Tessa JowellThe New Opportunity Fund's programmes are designed to ensure a fair geographic spread of lottery money. For some of its programmes, the fund targets particular areas in order to ensure that funding reaches those in the greatest need.
§ 27. Mr. SwayneTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the total value of national lottery ticket sales to date. [43169]
§ Mr. CabornThe total value of national lottery tickets sold from the launch in November 1994 up to and including the draw for the main online game on 9 March 2002 was £36,494,475,733.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she will give details of the outcome of her Department's discussions with national lottery distributors regarding increasing the efficiency of the distribution of lottery funding. [45716]
§ Mr. CabornThe Department has agreed with distributors a series of measures with a view to halving the overall National Lottery Distribution Fund balance by 2004. We propose to identify any elements in the Statement of Financial Requirements or policy directions which hinder faster payment and a bolder forward commitment policy and make amendments where this is consistent with good financial management; and to review whether more discretionary powers need to be introduced into the financial directions to enable distributors to assess applications in a way more commensurate with the risk involved.
562WIn addition, distributors have identified a range of methods which they may be able to use to reduce balances more quickly. These include adopting a bolder approach to commitment, leading to extra awards; improving systems for cash management; and reducing the time between an in-principle commitment being made and the first draw-down of funds. We will share best practice on measures employed by different distributors to reduce balances.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what criteria will be used for choosing which authorities are eligible to receive lottery money through the National Lottery Fair Share initiative; and if she will make a statement. [45901]
§ Mr. CabornThose local authority districts which will benefit from Fair Share have already been chosen according to whether they are deprived and are receiving less than the median per capita amount of lottery funding.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she will take to help disadvantaged areas which do not receive a proportionate share of National Lottery awards and who have not been placed on the list of disadvantaged areas eligible for the National Lottery Fair Share initiative. [45900]
§ Mr. CabornFair Share is one of several targeted initiatives operated by the lottery distributors. The Government are committed to ensuring that all areas benefit from lottery funding. We have challenged other lottery distributors to draw up their own lists of areas not receiving their fair share of lottery funding and target their resources on these.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how she will ensure that disadvantaged areas receive a proportionate level of lottery funding after the completion of the National Lottery Fair Share initiative in 2005. [45899]
§ Mr. CabornWe will consider what further steps might be taken once we have begun to evaluate the effectiveness of Fair Share.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the cost is of setting up the National Lottery's joint community fund and New Opportunities Fund Fair Share project; if she will give a breakdown of these costs; and from which budget the costs will be taken. [45346]
§ Mr. CabornThe New Opportunities Fund and the community fund are required to meet their running costs from their share of the National Lottery Distribution Fund. It is not possible at this stage to disaggregate the running costs that will accrue to the two distributors from administering Fair Share.
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to her answer of 18 March 2002,Official Report, column 45W, what consideration she gave to including Tewkesbury in the list of areas under the targeted lottery initiative. [46132]
§ Mr. CabornThe selection of Fair Share areas was a matter for the community fund and the new opportunities fund, based on broad criteria set by the Government. 563W Tewkesbury was not selected as a Fair Share area because it is not one of the 100 most deprived local authority districts in England.
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to her answer of 18 March 2002,Official Report, column 45W, how much each of the 51 areas listed under the targeted lottery initiatives has received in National Lottery funding. [46131]
§ Mr. CabornThe following table gives the value of lottery awards made in the 51 English Fair Share areas.
£ English local authorities Lottery award totals Ashfield 4,969,982 Barking and Dagenham 12,878,997 Barnsley 20,531,215 Basildon 2,615,620 Blackpool 8,346,303 Blyth Valley 4,150,301 Bolsover 7,637,701 Bolton 33,727,019 Bournemouth 9,244,798 Brent 138,228,766 Burnley 8,150,550 Darlington 6,843,302 Derby 23,905,119 Doncaster 60,909,039 Dudley 21,902,069 Ellesmere Port and Neston 5,795,148 Enfield 19,688,961 Great Yarmouth 6,803,257 Hyndburn 4,306,746 Kingston upon Hull, City of 41,257,139 Kirklees 35,868,837 Knowsley 14,368,675 Luton 11,508,015 North East Lincolnshire 7,109,709 North Somerset 11,905,771 Oldham 16,837,828 Pendle 5,077,803 Peterborough 19,032,272 Portsmouth 63,524,605 Rochdale 17,343,934 Rotherham 36,696,975 Salford 86,495,731 Sandwell 33,400,102 Sefton 18,576,783 Solihull 6,531,320 St. Helens 18,166,887 Stockton-on-Tees 18,566,799 Swindon 21,726,787 Tameside 11,754,532 Telford and Wrekin 19,684,276 Tendring 5,343,771 Thanet 10,434,744 Trafford 13,662,061 Wakefield 31,383,468 Walsall 34,700,659 Waltham Forest 16,941,245 Wansbeck 4,342,966 Waveney 4,595,907 West Lancashire 4,861,777 Wigan 23,675,368 Wirral 18,108,749