§ Mr. CouchmanTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what are her plans for the development of policy on the distribution of lottery proceeds. [34571]
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyI am writing today to the chairmen of the United Kingdom and English lottery distributing bodies to consult them on a change to the policy directions issued to the Arts Council of England under section 26(1) of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The proposed stabilisation programme would allow an amount of revenue funding to help arts organisations gain long-term financial viability in a way which would not substitute for existing grant in aid.
The stabilisation programme will aim to help arts organisations consider and in some cases change their objectives and the markets within which they operate; inject new creative, technical and managerial skills into the organisation to help them achieve their objectives; provide balance sheet stability; and deliver better value for money.
This is likely to be a technically complex programme. The Arts Council of England therefore proposes first to run a pilot to determine the best way in which a full stabilisation programme should work. The pilot will involve a sufficient number and range of arts organisations to enable the principle of the programme to be tested. The pilot will seek to identify whether the stabilisation programme could apply to the whole of arts provision across a single local authority area, and whether it could apply to a whole sector within the arts in addition to individual organisations. The pilot will also seek to identify the most appropriate administrative structure for managing the full stabilisation programme.
Financial instability is not unique to arts organisations. Heritage and sports organisations might also benefit from some form of mechanism to address financial and managerial problems. The Government will consider whether to introduce changes for the English Sports Council, once established, and the National Heritage Memorial Fund if such changes would meet the particular needs of those sectors. My colleagues will be consulting the chairmen of the Arts and Sports Councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland about the proposed direction and will consider in due course whether changes to the policy directions for those bodies should also be made.
The consultation which I have launched will last until 25 July. I will then consider the responses to the consultation process, with a view to announcing any change to the directions during August.
§ Mr. David ShawTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many grants and how much money have been awarded by the National Lottery Charities Board to organisations(a) the title of which and (b) one of the main objectives of which makes reference to sexual orientation; and if she will list those organisations and the amount of grant awarded to each. [33047]
§ Mr. SproatThe National Lottery Charities Board is responsible for decisions on grants awarded and information about them. I have therefore asked the chief executive of the board to write to my hon. Friend, placing copies of his response in the Libraries of the House.