To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on what grounds his Department’s plans to sell the Tote met objection from the EU; what response he has made to such objections; and if he will make a statement. (244678)

On 1 June 2005 the European Commission initiated a formal investigation under the state aid provisions of the Treaty of Rome into the then proposed terms of the sale of the Tote, which involved a sale at less than the market price. The Government’s view was that the investigation was likely to conclude that such a sale would constitute unlawful state aid, and accordingly notified the Commission on 3 May 2006 that it did not intend to proceed with a sale on those terms and was looking at alternative models.