Departmental Policies (London) (Hansard, 9 April 2001)

§ Mr. Chris Smith

Since May 1997 my Department has introduced and developed a variety of initiatives which will impact on my hon. Friend's constituency which promote our objectives of access, excellence, education, and creativity and employment. We have published our strategies to take this forward in "Tomorrows Tourism" and "A Sporting Future for All", which was recently followed up by "The Government's Plan for Sport". We have tackled the issue of social inclusion taking forward the recommendations of Policy Action Team 10 on Arts and Sport and developing social inclusion policies across all our areas which is recognised within the most recent progress report "Building on PAT10".

We have given more support to the cultural and sporting infrastructure. The Spending Review 2000 secured a doubling of the budget for sport and the largest ever increase for the arts: an increase of 80 per cent. from £186 million in 1997–98 to £336 million in 2003–04. In taking forward our aim to develop the educational 393W potential of culture and sport, £40 million has been allocated to developing Creative Partnerships; we have established, through lottery funding, the £30 million National Foundation for Youth Music; and secured an additional £130 million for primary schools sports and arts facilities through the Space for Sport and the Arts programme. With £120 million of central Government and Lottery funding we will be providing a school sports co-ordinator in one in four secondary schools to work with local primary and special schools to improve sporting provision and physical education for children in the most deprived areas. We have delivered free access to national museums for children and the over 60's and additional money will be provided to allow this to be extended to everyone in December 2001. We have commissioned a Taskforce which is currently considering the issues facing non-national museums in the regions.

We have made improvements in the way the Lottery is spent to ensure a fairer distribution. The introduction of the New Opportunities Fund for spending on health, education and the environment has made a real difference to communities everywhere. For instance it has invested £120 million to support the People's Network, which will enable all 4,300 public libraries to offer free public internet access through UK online learning centres; and a further £50 million to stimulate development of content to support the Network.

We have established the Greater London Authority and an elected Mayor for London. The Mayor now has responsibility for most aspects of culture in London and has appointed a Cultural Strategy Group to advise him and to draw up a cultural strategy for London.

We have published a Green Paper "Culture and Creativity: The Next Ten Years", setting out how individual creative talent can be given the support it needs from childhood to flourish; how artists and cultural institutions can be freed from bureaucratic controls; and how the freedom to explore and enjoy creativity and culture can be made available to all.

Through their commitment to public service broadcasting, the Government have helped to foster an environment in which a creative, commercially successful broadcasting industry provides a wide range of UK-made, high quality, original programmes catering for all viewers and listeners. We have ensured a secure funding base for the BBC and S4C, while giving them the freedom to develop commercial operations which complement and support their public service remit. We have made it clear in the Communications White Paper that public service broadcasting will continue to have a key role to play in the digital future. The Government have introduced free television licences for people aged 75 or over from 1 November last year.

My Department sponsors the British Tourist Authority (BTA) which continues to promote Britain effectively as an attractive tourist destination for overseas visitors. The BTA's successful marketing activities are aimed at bringing benefits to all parts of the UK, including London.

In delivering these initiatives we aim to make cultural and sporting activities inclusive ones, boosting participation and improving the quality of life for all.

394W

London

According to the information supplied to us by the distributing bodies for the national lottery awards database, there have been 7,381 national lottery awards to the London Region totalling £1,069,301,551. This includes £50 million for Tate Modern, 76 awards from the Millennium Festival totalling £11,456,514 and £550,000 from the National Foundation for Youth Music for a Youth Music Action Zone which will work with young people across the whole of London.

1,935 Millennium Award Winners have been identified from London and between them have received grants totalling £5,845,057.

Under the Space for Sport and the Arts scheme, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark, Hackney, Islington, Barking & Dagenham, Brent, Greenwich, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets to al education authorities have been allocated up to £16.75 million towards providing improved facilities for sport and arts in over 30 primary schools in London which can also be used by the wider community.

Significant additional resources were made available to museums and galleries in this country as a result of the Government's 1999–2002 Comprehensive Spending review. This additional funding has also allowed free admission for all but one of the DCMS sponsored museums in London from 1 April 1999 and, from 1 April 2000, free entry for the over 60s at most of them.

Additional funding will be offered to enable universal free access at nearly all of the DCMS sponsored museums and galleries from 1 December 2001.

The following London boroughs have a DCMS sponsored museum or gallery within its boundaries: London borough of Camden The British Museum London borough of Greenwich The National Maritime Museum London borough of Hackney The Geffrye Museum London borough of Southwark The Homiman Museum London borough of Southwark

The Design Museum
HMS Belfast
The Imperial War Museum
Tate Modern

London borough of Tower Hamlets The Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood City of London The Museum of London City of Westminster

Apsley House
The Cabinet War Rooms
The National Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery
Tate Britain
The Theatre Museum
The Wallace Collection

395W Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The Natural History Museum
The Science Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum.

The benefits of extended access and the services provided by DCMS sponsored museums are available to the residents of all London boroughs and beyond.

An additional part of the package of museum measures arising from the 1999–2002 Review was the introduction of the Designated Museums Challenge Fund (DMCF) to support some of the country's leading non-national museums.

DMCF allocations of £581,000 were announced by London museums July 1999; a further £1,511,000 in May 2000 and £1,470,000 in March 2001 supporting a variety of projects in the institutions concerned.

Information from English Heritage (EH) is: 53 grants to churches, totalling £1,775,000; 152 grants to historic buildings and monuments, totalling £3,243,000; contributions to 42 Conservation Area Partnership/Heritage Economic Regeneration schemes, totalling £4,135,000; 79 local authority conservation officer posts funded, at a total cost of £1,742,000.

Information on the number of beneficiaries of free television licences by constituency is not available, but estimates based on the 1991 Census indicate that there are approximately 442,000 people aged 75 or over living in London.

London Arts received £26,765,000 in 2000–01 from the Arts Council to support arts and cultural activity across its region. In 2001–02 this will increase to £29,886,048 or by 11.66 per cent.