§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if lottery funds from the World Class Performance Programme will be available for(a) chess, 383W (b) bridge, (c) pigeon racing and (d) hang-gliding when the new financial directions for the lottery come into force. [89142]
§ Mr. BanksAs a sport recognised by the UK and home Sports Councils, hang-gliding is eligible to apply for Lottery Sports funding. Lottery funds are, however, not unlimited and it will be necessary for the Sports Councils, when looking at applications, to prioritise and target awards based on criteria which they have established as the statutory distributors of Lottery funding for sport.
Currently, UK Sport and the four home country Sports Councils do not recognise bridge, chess and pigeon racing and are not eligible to receive Lottery Sports funding. We will seek to amend existing legislation when parliamentary time allows so that chess may become eligible for Lottery sports funding. The final details of the Bill have yet to be determined and we will consider again later in the year whether to extend these changes to other activities such as bridge.