HC Deb 06 March 2003 vol 400 cc1168-9W
Mr. Swire

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessments have been made of the economic and social impact of the 2002 Commonwealth Games on(a) the city of Manchester and (1)) the UK. [100341]

Mr. Caborn

A full economic and social impact assessment of the 2002 Commonwealth Games was commissioned by Manchester city council. The study was undertaken by Cambridge Policy Consultants (CPC) and identified the impact of the Games at a range of spatial— levels East Manchester, North West and the UK.

The full report and executive summary was published in April 2002, and was made available to all key partners. The executive summary was publicly available, and the full report was available by request. The executive summary was then revised post-Games by CPC to assess the robustness of their original analysis. The revised summary was made available in October 2002. Work is under-way on the development of an evaluation framework which will continue to measure the legacy of the Games. I will arrange for copies of the report to be placed in the Library of the House.

The Public Sector Funders and Manchester 2002 defined the following shared objectives in relation to the Games: To position the UK as a Centre of International Sport, and to demonstrate the UK's ability to host a major international sporting event. To view the games as one means of strengthening sports participation at all levels To strengthen the economic and social capacity of the City/ Region, recognising the importance of capturing maximum benefits to justify the significant capital investment in facilities To advance policies for greater social inclusion, promotion of diversity, access to sport and volunteering To showcase Britain internationally and to raise the profile of the Commonwealth

An assessment of how well these objectives were achieved was included in an independent 'lessons learned' report, jointly commissioned by my Department, Manchester city council and Sport England in June 2002.

This full published report can be viewed on the DCMS website at www.culture.gov.uk.