HL Deb 26 October 2004 vol 665 cc115-7WA
Lord Moynihan

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What level of funding has been provided to British Paralympic sports on a sport-by-sport basis since the Sydney 2000 Paralympics. [HL4446]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)

A summary of the amount of lottery funding provided by UK Sport since April 2001 is shown in the following table.

Lord Moynihan

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the evidence given by the Mayor of London and representatives of the London 2012 Committee to the Greater London Assembly on 13 October is correct in stating that public support will account for 0.5 per cent of the International Olympic Committee's evaluation of London's Olympic bid. [HL4471]

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

London 2012 has advised that the information provided to the assembly on the weighting of public support was an approximation relating to the assessment made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in May 2004. In its working group report on all applicant cities, the category of "Government Support, Legal Issues and Public Opinion" was given a weighting of two out of a possible 36, with public support accounting for 15 per cent of the total marks awarded in that category. That equates to 0.083 per cent.

There is no information currently available about the weighting of public support in the final IOC evaluation, although it will be important for a successful bid to be able to demonstrate high levels of public support throughout the UK.

Lord Moynihan

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Who will pay for the security costs associated with hosting the Olympic Games if the London 2012 bid is successful; and what estimates they have made of such costs. [HL4472]

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

Using the same approach as that taken for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, security for the Olympic Park and venues will be covered within the Olympic operating budget with the public sector funding package paying for the wider costs of policing and anti-terrorism. On the basis of a detailed assessment by consultants and after close liaison with the Metropolitan Police Service, sums for both of these elements have been provisionally identified in the Olympic budget. These will be available on publication of the candidate file next month; the International Olympic Committee have asked candidate cities not to make the file public prior to then.

Lord Moynihan

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How they will share the costs between the Mayor of London, the National Lottery and the Exchequer of any public subsidy required by the London 2012 Olympics in excess of the £2.375 billion already confirmed within the June 2003 Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the Mayor of London on Olympic funding; and [HL4521]

In line with their funding formula for the hosting of the London Olympic Games in 2012, what would be the anticipated precept levels for Londoners assuming an overspend of (a) £1 billion; (b) £2 billion; and (c) £3 billion. [HL4546]

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

The robust and business-like approach to planning and financial controls on the part of the Olympic stakeholders are designed to prevent such overspend. As the Memorandum of Understanding, laid before the Parliament as Command Paper 5867, states in paragraph 17, in the event of any overspend the Government will be the ultimate guarantor. We further reported this to Parliament in a Departmental Minute dated 2 December 2003. As the memorandum goes on to say, the Government expect to discharge that responsibility (should it arise) in a sharing agreement to be agreed as appropriate with the Mayor of London and through seeking additional National Lottery funding in amounts to be agreed at the time. At this stage however, no such specific sharing arrangements exist. Whatever the arrangements which might apply, levels of any London council tax precept would be a matter for the Mayor of London.

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