HC Deb 12 June 2003 vol 406 cc1037-8W
Nick Harvey

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to her statement of 15 May 2003,Official Report, columns 477–78, on the Olympic Games 2012, how much funding from existing Lottery money will be re-directed to a London Olympic Games from the (a) Community Fund, (b) New Opportunities Fund, (c) Arts Council, (d) Heritage Lottery Fund, (e) sports councils, (f) film councils and (g) other distribution organisations. [118185]

Tessa Jowell

The statement of 15 May refers to an overall contribution of up to £1.5 billion from the National Lottery to the cost of staging the 2012 Olympic Games.

The National Lottery Commission's prudent assessment is that new Olympic Lottery games could generate £750 million in the period 2005–2012, however it does not discount the possibility of the initiatives outperforming this estimate. It is currently expected that half of this total will be raised through Olympic Lottery games where the income will be hypothecated for hosting the Olympics. A further £340 million will be derived sought from planned spending/expenditure by the established sports distributors.

Were it required, any outstanding balance would/will be met by changing the percentage shares of Lottery income passing to the existing Good Causes after 2009. A review of those shares would have taken place whether or not London was bidding to host the Olympics.

Preliminary estimates provided by Camelot, and assessed by the National Lottery Commission, suggest that any negative impact on income on the existing good causes from Olympic Lottery games would be small—4 per cent. for the remainder of the Camelot licence period, until 2009. Until 2009 the impact of Olympic Lottery games on the existing Good Causes is unlikely to be more than 4 per cent.

It is too early to say what the impact on individual distributing bodies will be. As noted in the original statement, the whole Olympic funding package, including the Lottery element, will be reviewed in 2005 when much clearer estimates of the costs involved in the Olympic project will be available.