To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 4 December 2006, Official Report, columns 99-100W, on the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, whether VAT costs for the Olympics were mentioned in (a) the 2002 ARUP London Olympics 2012 Costs and Benefits report, (b) the 2003 PricewaterhouseCoopers London 2012 Costs and Benefits report, (c) the 2004 PricewaterhouseCoopers Olympic Cost Review and (d) the advice provided in the Olympic report by KPMG. (108944)

[holding answer 13 December 2006]: The cost of VAT was not assessed in the ARUP report or either of the two PricewaterhouseCoopers reports because no decision at that stage could be made about VAT in relation to the proposed establishment of an Olympic Delivery Authority which we had not yet legislated for and the tax status of which had yet to be determined. KPMG included an assessment of VAT costs as part of the ongoing advice that I commissioned.