§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of business sponsorship for the New Millennium Experience Company represents cash payments towards the construction costs. [75761]
§ Janet Anderson[holding answer 9 March 1999]: The sponsorship income component of the cash budget (£758 million) for the Millennium Experience project, agreed by the Government and the Millennium Commission in June 1997, is not linked specifically to individual expenditure components such as construction costs. No two sponsorship deals are exactly the same; some focus on individual zones within the Dome; others focus on particular strands of the Millennium Experience's National Programme; others combine the two. It is for the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), in consultation with the Millennium Commission, to decide how, in its best commercial judgment to apply sponsorship support to meet the costs.