§ 13. Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proposals he has to assist sports other than Association Football to improve grounds and stadiums. [7509]
§ Mr. BanksI am keen to see higher standards of crowd safety at all sports. The English Sports Council has announced that it will give greater priority to the provision of lottery funding for spectator facilities for the major spectator sports. I welcome that decision.
§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what national strategy guidance is used to ensure that lottery money is targeted strategically at sports facilities; and if he will make a statement. [7995]
§ Mr. BanksThe lottery sports fund has provided an excellent opportunity to make great improvements to the nation's sporting facilities. To date, capital funding of more than £570 million has been awarded to some 2,200 projects throughout England.
The English Sports Council—the statutory distributor of lottery funds for good causes in sport in England—undertakes this responsibility within the framework set 436W combined as a single total for this reply, and the Department and its agencies are moving towards the introduction of pay bands for remaining grades.
Except where stated, therefore, numbers are shown against standard grade equivalents for the civil service.
out in directions issued to it by the Secretary of State. A copy of the directions is available in the Library of the House.
In addition, the ESC has developed additional strategies to help schools and areas of social deprivation, both urban and rural. The schools community sports initiative and the priority areas initiative have been introduced which allow up to 90 per cent. funding for new projects.
More needs to be done to help those regions that have been less successful in securing awards and we are looking into how the distribution of awards can be spread more evenly.