§ Mr. FaberTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will place in the Library minutes of his meeting with UK Sport on 30 November 1999. [115233]
§ Mr. Chris SmithMinutes of discussions between Ministers, civil servants, and third parties who have been invited on a confidential basis, are taken for internal use and record and it is not possible to make them public. I can however confirm that the conclusion of the meeting on 30 November 1999 was that relocating athletics would provide better value for public money than proceeding with the platform design.
£ 1999–2000 2000–01 Grant-in-aid 20,759,000 20,855,000 Free entry—for children (1999) and over 60s (2000) 997,000 1,424,000 Extra funds 1,000,000 1,400,000 Purchase and refurbishment of RNAY Wroughton Up to 1,000,000 400,000 Total 23,756,000 24,079,000 For 1998–99, the Science Museum was allocated £20,281,000.
§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what was the increase in funding last requested by the Science Museum in order to fund free admission for adults. [115327]
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe increase in funding last requested by the Science Museum was for £5.83 million to implement free adult admission from 28 June 2000 to 31 March 2001. Of this, £2 million relates to loss of adult admission income, £1.91 million in compensation for loss of recoverable VAT input tax on operating income and £1.92 million for VAT on capital activity. Similar figures for the National Railway Museum are £1.11 million, of which £700,000 relates to lost adult admission income, £210,000 for VAT on operating income, and £200,000 for VAT on capital activity.