To ask the Minister for the Olympics pursuant to the answer of 27 February 2009, Official Report, column 1115W, on the Olympic games 2012, when each of the key stakeholder forums to design and deliver the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies is to take place; what the location of each is; who has been invited to each; what account the London Olympic Committee plans to take of the outcome of each event; and if she will make a statement. (261677)

[holding answer 6 March 2009]: The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has scheduled a number of ceremony forums in every nation and region across the UK in February and March of this year.

Confirmed locations include Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow, Brighton, London, Newcastle, Wakefield, Cambridge, Leicester, Manchester, Cardiff and Plymouth. Each forum includes around 10-15 diverse creative industry experts selected by the creative programmers in each nation and region, and there will also be special ones for young people.

These are initial fora to scope the ambition of the ceremonies and how to get the whole country involved—they will not finalise the content of the four opening and closing ceremonies to take place in 2012. The results of the fora will inform LOCOG's decision-making processes on the creative brief for the ceremonies in due course.