Olympic sport legacy is a disaster - Foster

Fewer people have been taking part in sport in the last year, and there have been significant drops in participation in many sports, Liberal Democrat analysis of today’s Sport England figures has shown. Analysis of the figures reveals:

• Drops in participation in rugby union, swimming, rowing, gymnastics and golf despite huge increases in funding last year
• Participation in gymnastics has fallen by over 30% since the last survey while funding had increased by 130%
• Falling participation among women and those with a disability across all sports
• No progress overall against the Government’s target of getting a million more people playing more sport by 2012

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said:

“These disastrous figures show the Government’s Olympic legacy strategy is going badly wrong.

“Many sports which have had huge funding increases are actually witnessing a decline in participation.

“There are also worrying drops in participation among women and the disabled - two of the Government’s target groups.

“Money must be better targeted to make sure people have access to high quality sports facilities and opportunities to form longstanding links with local sports clubs.

“Granting gift-aid on junior membership to sports clubs would be a good step in the right direction.”

Government piracy measures draconian and ill-considered - Foster

“We cannot allow the Government to rush through proposals which could lead to innocent people being cut off from vital internet services," said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture Secretary.

Commenting on the Government’s announcement of new measures that could see people who illegally download films and music cut off from the internet, Don Foster said:

“Illegal downloading poses an extremely serious threat to our creative industries, but this is a draconian and ill-considered move by the Government.

“A similar law has been rejected in France and we must hope the same happens here.

“While action needs to be taken against piracy, the Government must give careful consideration to concerns over privacy and ensure proper legal processes are followed.

“We cannot allow the Government to rush through proposals which could lead to innocent people being cut off from vital internet services.”

Foster: Bank watchdogs paid £25m in bonus bonanza

Mon, 01 Jun 2009

Government regulators paid out £25m in bonuses to staff last year despite serious problems in many of the areas they regulate. £5½m of the bonuses went to executives earning over £100,000, according to figures revealed to the Liberal Democrats.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that:

• The FSA paid £19.7m in bonuses to staff last year, with £4m of that going to executives earning over £100,000 - despite the bank crisis
• Ofcom paid its execs an average bonus of £16,667 - despite failing to prevent thousands of consumers losing money in the TV quiz phone-in scandal
• Ofgem paid its execs an average bonus of £15,250 each - despite large increases in gas and electricity prices
• The top bonus paid out at the FSA was £90,000 - the highest paid at Ofcom was £56,400
• The average bonus paid to regulator executives was £19,100 - the average for other staff was £4,107

Commenting Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said:

"We all accept the need to attract top-quality workers to the public sector but in some cases it appears these bonuses have been paid out despite serious failings."

"This government offered hard working teachers and nurses below inflation pay deals while doing nothing to curb regulator executives earning five figure bonuses."

"The size of some of these pay outs would be hard to justify at the best of times, but it looks especially bad in the current economic climate."

"Regulators must now follow the lead of those in the rest of the public sector who have promised to freeze executive pay."

Table 1: Breakdown of bonuses for the Financial Services Authority, Ofcom, Ofgem, The Pensions Regulator, Ofwat, the Office of Fair Trading, Postcomm, the Civil Aviation Authority, and the Office of Rail Regulation.

Regulator	Number of Staff	Amount paid in bonuses to staff in total	Average staff bonus	Number of Employees on salaries over £100,000	Proportion of total staff earning over £100,000	Amount paid in bonuses to staff on salaries over £100,000	Average bonus paid to saff on salaries over £100,000	Highest bonus paid
TPR	328	£321,531	£980	12	4%	£76,577	£6,381	£28,512
Ofcom	810	£1,974,280	£2,437	48	6%	£800,000	£16,667	£56,400
Ofgem	302	£404,199	£1,338	10	3%	£152,500	£15,250
Ofwat	193	£55,000	£285	4	2%	£30,000	£7,500	£20,000
OFT	700	£564,418	£806	11	2%	£77,107	£7,010	£16,414
Postcomm	>66	£175,167	£2,654	1	2%	£8,246	£8,246
CAA	962	£1,797,211	£1,868	24	2%	£430,170	£17,924
ORR	345	£449,787	£1,304	6	2%	£55,000	£9,167
FSA	2,489	£19,700,000	£7,915	174	7%	£3,912,380	£22,485	£90,000
Total	6195	£25,441,593	£4,107	290	5%	£5,541,980	£19,110

Source: All information was received from Freedom of Information responses.

Foster: 1,000 under-14’s admitted to hospital with mental and behavioural disorders due to alcoholMon, 16 Mar 2009

Over 1,000 children under 14 have been admitted to hospital in England for mental and behavioural disorders related to alcohol in the last year, according to figures revealed today by the Liberal Democrats.

The information, contained in a Parliamentary answer, shows that:

• 160,931 over 18s were admitted, a 56% increase from five years ago
• 5,223 children aged 14-17 admitted, a 30% increase from five years ago
• 44 under 10s were admitted, with 304 admissions over the last 5 years

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said:

"These astronomical figures show once again that binge drinking is out of control in this country."

"It's particularly shocking that so many of these admissions relate to children under the age of 10. It is now imperative that parents and schools get the resources they need to educate children from a very young age about the dangers of alcohol."

"When there are thousands of children in hospital for serious alcohol related conditions we cannot bury our heads in the sand about the consequences of our drinking culture."

"It is vital that the NHS is equiped to deal with alcohol dependency and other alcohol related conditions."