§ Mr. ChallenTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Lottery money has been distributed through the Fair Shares programme; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the programme. [135652]
§ Estelle MorrisThe fair share initiative aims to ensure that those communities at greatest disadvantage do not lose out from Lottery funding. In its first year of operation, over £31 million has been distributed through the Community Fund's grants programmes targeted at fair share areas; grants of between £200,000 and £2.2 million have been committed under the New Opportunities Fund's 'fair share: transforming your space' programme; and a £50 million fair share Trust has been set up, to be delivered by the Community Foundation Network. The programme has achieved 90 per cent. of its projected funding target for 2002–03. Now that these building blocks are in place, I expect to see a steady increase in the flow of funding over the remaining two years of the programme.