HC Deb 22 March 1977 vol 928 cc520-1W
Mr. Freud

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what he intends shall be the balance between sport on the one hand and the arts on the other in the background of those invited to be members of the committee he has established to look into recreation management training under the management of Mrs. Ann Yates;

(2) if at least one-third of those appointed to Mrs. Yates' committee will have a general background in arts administration rather than in sports administration;

(3) if he is satisfied that the terms of reference of Mrs. Yates' committee are so drawn as to avoid distinctions between training for management of outdoor recreational activities on the one hand and indoor recreational activities, including the arts, on the other;

(4) whether, in drawing up the terms of reference for Mrs. Yates' committee, he considered recent developments in local government organisations which have in many large authorities drawn together management responsibility for sport, arts, libraries and museums;

(5) in view of the report on joint use of facilities issued by the three main local authority organisations in England and Wales under the title "Towards a Wider Use", and of the widely accepted need for shared use, what is his policy towards unified training in recreation management with common elements for those working primarily in sport and those working primarily in the arts;

(6) what were the considerations that led him to draw the terms of reference for Mrs. Yates' committee in such a way as to exclude the committee from looking thoroughly into the training of those concerned with management in the arts.

Mrs. Shirley Williams

I have been asked to reply.

The reasons for excluding the management training needs of cultural recreation from the draft terms of reference of the committee were given in a consultation letter sent to the local authority associations and other interested bodies on 5th December 1975, a copy of which is in the Library. The draft terms of reference were reviewed in the light of the comments received, and while it was decided not to widen them to cover the cultural aspects, the work already done in the fields of arts, libraries and museums will be made available to the committee.