"In January, Motorsport Development UK, the body set up by the minister to co-ordinate this programme, produced its annual report. It makes very sorry reading and is the primary reason for my question today. The highly publicised £16m has been reduced by 40 per cent to only £10m. The report is entirely devoid of any financial details or figures covering salaries, overheads or expenses used in distributing the fund - nor does it explain the value, efficiency or effectiveness to the industry, or the taxpayer, of the objectives. This lack of explanation by a publicly funded body is a scandal.
"It appears that MDUK still remains funded by just four of the twelve devolved administrations and regions, plus the department of business enterprise and regulatory reform, to the tune of only £400,000 each per year from their multi-million-pound budgets. Why is the department of culture, media and sport now absent from the list of funders? Is it no longer associated with this initiative? Has it kept the £6m earmarked for this project for some other sport? If not, what has happened to this significant sum and why has this not been made public?
"As the report fails to clarify many important points, and there is real concern in the motorsport industry, would the minister's department be able to provide a clear, detailed financial breakdown of the MDUK performance and expenditure, with regional budgets and spending, and explain what happened to the full £16m announced by the former minister to such fanfare? I suggest that this is done in the form of a letter to me, with a copy placed in the library.
