Mr Iain Sproat: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind invitation to the festival. I am more than willing to take it up, given that he invited me to the Liverpool Philharmonic a couple of years ago and I greatly enjoyed myself. I shall gladly consider the hon. Gentleman's point about the shortage of funds to see whether I can give advice on how to find help.
Mr Iain Sproat: I should like to correct a minor inaccuracy in the tirade of vilification of the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks). The trustees are appointed by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. I say sincerely to the hon. Gentleman that, if he has any suitable names in mind for membership of any of the 50 quangos that we have to fill in the Department of National Heritage, I would be...
Mr Iain Sproat: Yes.
Mr Iain Sproat: As regards the terms of the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross (Ms Cunningham), I hope that I can satisfy her—although I have my doubts—that the words that she wishes to insert into the Bill are both unnecessary and undesirable. Clause 1 inserts into the National Heritage Act 1980 two new provisions defining the scope of the funding powers of the NHMF trustees....
Mr Iain Sproat: It could be done if the trustees were convinced that it would be of public benefit and in the national interest, not the sociological or anthropological issues that the hon. Lady is seeking to insert into the Bill. As the hon. Gentleman knows, the NHMF and the heritage lottery fund work totally independently of Ministers. I understand that on legal advice they felt that there was a conflict...
Mr Iain Sproat: It is a fair point. It is certainly true that the community interest and the national interest are not synonymous. It could be that on occasions they would not be in conflict, but as I understand it, on this occasion there was doubt that the crofters' interest was synonymous with the national interest. That was the sticking point. It is up to the trustees of the NHMF and the heritage...
Mr Iain Sproat: No. I would say neither that nor reducing it to 25 per cent. would guarantee that it would be acceptable. It would be up to the trustees to judge for themselves whether any percentage was benefiting a particular or sectional interest to the disbenefit of the national interest. That is a matter that the trustees must decide for themselves in the specific circumstances of any application. On...
Mr Iain Sproat: I thank the hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) for introducing the subject of the debate. It is an interesting subject and he made an extremely interesting speech about it. It is a shame that it has to be raised on the Adjournment of the House, when there is not the opportunity for discussion. It is a pity that this is not some sort of Bill, so that we could have a lengthy Committee...
Mr Iain Sproat: The heritage lottery fund has made 33 grants for nearly £27 million for the acquisition of items of historical importance which might otherwise have been exported overseas. I have arranged for a full list to be placed in the Libraries.
Mr Iain Sproat: My hon. Friend is right to draw the attention of the House to the improvements that the National Heritage Bill will make. It will mean that lottery funds will be able to be used for the acquisition of individual items, as they are now, and it will mean that education, information technology access and other matters beyond preservation and maintenance will be able to be dealt with by the...
Mr Iain Sproat: There are two simple answers. First, it is a matter for the national heritage memorial fund, which makes decisions about how moneys will be disbursed. Secondly, there will be opportunities for clawback in the contract that is agreed between the memorial fund and a commercial organisation or a private person when lottery funds are allocated.
Mr Iain Sproat: The lottery sports fund for Wales has so far supported the provision of 20 all-weather pitches throughout Wales. The English lottery sports fund has so far supported the provision of 149 all-weather pitches, costing more than £11 million. In total, the national lottery has made more than 2,465 awards of some £428 million to provide new, improved and upgraded sports facilities across the UK.
Mr Iain Sproat: It is certainly true that all-weather pitches are an extremely important addition to current sports facilities. Although 20 such pitches in Wales have been provided by the lottery, there are actually 62 all-weather pitches throughout Wales. The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but all-weather pitches are not the only facilities that need to be provided. Where they are, however, the...
Mr Iain Sproat: It is certainly true that Wembley stadium is probably the biggest brand name stadium in the world, and that lottery money will be used to refurbish it to the highest possible standards. On the other implications of my hon. Friend's questions, I have spoken to the Football Association many times in the past few weeks, and I am seeing its representatives immediately after Question Time.
Mr Iain Sproat: We have had representations from several tourism organisations. Tourism is a prosperous and expanding industry, and there is no evidence that the duty has had any significantly damaging effects on tourism. Indeed, since the duty was introduced in 1994, we have had record numbers of overseas visitors to the United Kingdom.
Mr Iain Sproat: No, it has not, because it is a well-known principle of government—it obtained under Labour Governments as well as the present one—that the Treasury does not like hypothecated income.
Mr Iain Sproat: I am glad about the improvement in the railways. It is true that the amount of money spent by our population on tourism has gone up at the same time as the spend by foreign visitors has increased. The answer to my hon. Friend's question is that the tax has not affected things one way or the other.
Mr Iain Sproat: The National Lottery Charities Board has made 6,925 awards totalling £478 million to charities and voluntary organisations. The other distributing bodies have made a total of 5,194 awards totalling £2.352 billion, many of which will also have gone to charitable and voluntary organisations.
Mr Iain Sproat: My hon. and learned Friend is right. Well over half the awards funded by the distributing bodies have gone to voluntary charitable organisations. He is also right that, so far, there is no evidence that giving to charities has fallen. We are looking into that at the moment and hope to provide interim results in May. As for his third point, getting young people off the streets is extremely...
Mr Iain Sproat: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, which I will draw to the attention of the distributor body.
