§ Mr. ColemanTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if his Department uses the Index of Multiple Deprivation in the allocation of funding. [134568]
§ Mr. Chris SmithIn general terms, the Department allocates funding according to the policy priorities encapsulated in its Public Service Agreement objectives, which include economic regeneration and social inclusion.
477WBoth the Department and its sponsored bodies are planning to use the Index of Multiple Deprivation in relation to certain specific funding programmes. For example, the index will be one of the sources of information used by the Department to determine the location of the Creative Partnerships that will bring new cultural and creative opportunities to schoolchildren in deprived areas. The New Opportunities Fund will also use the index to help determine which local projects should be supported with National Lottery money. Spaces for Sport and the Arts, a capital programme to improve provision in primary schools, financed jointly by the Department, its lottery distributors and the Department for Education and Employment, has used the index as one means of targeting funding on particular local authorities.