Oral Answers to Questions

Damian Collins Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

Yes, I agree fully with my right hon. Friend. He will know that of the £20 million we allocated in that grant, £13 million has been used so there is still about £7 million left to go. I urge other cathedrals to take advantage of that and to work to help their local communities.

[Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con)]

12. What assistance his Department has provided to sports bodies to encourage world-class sporting events to be held in the UK.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mrs Helen Grant)]

Through UK Sport, we have invested £27 million to bring more than 70 major sporting events to the UK. The Government also made available an extra £10 million to support last year’s excellent Tour de France Grand Départ.

[Damian Collins]

Does the Minister agree that the recent chaos at FIFA demonstrates that it is not fit to govern world football? Will she confirm that the Government would not support a future bid from England to host the World cup while the current leadership team at FIFA remains in place?

[Mrs Grant]

In his letter to Sepp Blatter, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said that FIFA could restore credibility by publishing Michael Garcia’s report and that failure to do so would

“further damage…its own credibility”

and

“the reputation of football”.