§ Mr. BorrowTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much money has been spent on the digitisation of content in libraries in South Ribble since 1997. [172143]
§ Estelle MorrisThis information is not held centrally.
The New Opportunities Fund £50 million Digitisation of Learning Materials Programme has delivered 150 projects across the UK to enable resources which support learning of all kinds held in libraries as well as museums, archives and other public-sector institutions, to be made available online through the People's Network and the National Grid for Learning. This initiative has created a body of material containing over 2 million images, tens of thousands of sound and video clips and documents and over 1,000 learning packages. All projects can be accessed via the EnrichUK portal at http://www.enrichuk.net.
Information on grants awarded to individual local authorities and their expenditure can be obtained from the relevant authority.
§ Mr. BorrowTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the work of regional development agencies in developing tourism in South Ribble. [172144]
§ Mr. CabornThe North West Development Agency (NWDA) is working closely with the Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board, the nominated Destination Management Organisation (DMO) for Lancashire. The new DMOs are, in effect, smaller versions of tourist boards. They aim to ensure a strong visitor and market focus to all that is done within the region and strengthen the connection between businesses and other organisations in the tourism sector.
During 2003–04, the Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board received £275,000 from the agency's tourism budget for a variety of tourism marketing and development projects. South Ribble has also benefited from the agency's contribution of £60,000 during 2003–04 towards the construction of a visitor centre in Cuerden Valley Park.
§ Mr. BorrowTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much money from the New Opportunities Fund was allocated to South Ribble in each year since 1997. [172153]
§ Estelle MorrisThe New Opportunities Fund began making grants in 1999. The awards to South Ribble are shown in the table.
326W
Financial year Amount (£) 1999–2000 482,994 2000–01 273,735 2001–02 0 2002–03 0 2003–04 31,296 The information is freely available from the Department's searchable Lottery award database at www.lottery.culture.gsi.gov.uk, which uses information supplied by the Lottery distributors.