The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebrating the start of the third. The body was wound up in 2006.
Set up in 1993 by the National Lottery etc. Act 1993, the Commission was an independent non-departmental public body.[ citation needed ] Commissioners were appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister; the Chair of the Commission was, for most of its life, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and for most of its life a second government minister was also a Commissioner.[ citation needed ] During Tessa Jowell's tenure as Chair the second Minister was Richard Caborn, as Minister for Sport, who preceded Jowell in the department by one day, and who left the department contemporaneously (when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister).[ citation needed ]
The Commission was wound up in December 2006 and its role was transferred to the Big Lottery Fund. [1]
The Commission invested over £2 billion in buildings, environmental projects, celebrations and community schemes. Funded projects include:
There were initially nine commissioners – two ministers, one appointed by the opposition, and six independents. The number of commissioners was reduced to five as the work of the commission decreased. The final members were:
Christopher Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury, is a British politician and a peer; a former Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister; and former chairman of the Environment Agency. For the majority of his career he was a Labour Party member. He was the first openly gay male British MP, coming out in 1984, and in 2005, the first MP to acknowledge that he is HIV positive. Since 2015 he has been Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting. Its main offices are at 100 Parliament Street, occupying part of the building known as Government Offices Great George Street.
Richard George Caborn is a British politician who served as Minister of Sport from 2001 to 2007 and later as the prime minister's ambassador for England's 2018 FIFA World Cup bid. He previously served as a junior minister in the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions and Department of Trade and Industry. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Central from 1983 to 2010.
Anthony Louis Banks, Baron Stratford was a British politician who served as Minister for Sport from 1997 to 1999. A member of the Labour Party, he was a member of Parliament from 1983 to 2005 and subsequently as a member of the House of Lords. He was well known in the House of Commons for his acid tongue.
Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) is Wales' national arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The site covers a total area of 4.7 acres (1.9 ha). Phase 1 of the building was opened during the weekend of 26–28 November 2004 and phase 2 opened on 22 January 2009 with an inaugural concert.
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Cardiff Bay Opera House was a proposed centre for the performing arts in Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales, conceived in the 1990s as a crucial part of the Cardiff Bay redevelopment project. One aim of the scheme was to create a new home for the Welsh National Opera company, which was then based in the New Theatre in Cardiff. The Wales Millennium Centre was built in its place and it opened in 2004.
Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, to grow the number of people doing sport; sustain participation levels; and help more talented people from all diverse backgrounds excel by identifying them early, nurturing them, and helping them move up to the elite level.
The 2012 Summer Olympic development process began in 2005, following the successful London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and ran until the games in 2012. While many of the plans were included in the bid portfolio, which gained the favour of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the four other bids on 6 July 2005, there were more details released and decisions made afterwards. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was created to oversee many of these developments, though such a large-scale event requires the co-operation of many other agencies. These organizations are sometimes integral parts of the London 2012 plans, while others are unrelated but can still have a great effect.
Newcastle City Council is the local authority for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. Newcastle has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 the council has been a metropolitan borough council. It has been under Labour majority control since 2011. In 2024 the council became a member of the North East Combined Authority. The council is based at Newcastle Civic Centre.
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Jeremy Hugh Beecham, Baron Beecham is a British Labour politician and a senior figure in English local government. He was leader of Newcastle City Council and the first Chairman of the Local Government Association. He was the elected Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.
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A Welsh Government sponsored body (WGSB) is a non-departmental public body directly funded by the Welsh Government. Under the Government of Wales Act 1998 the bodies were sponsored by the National Assembly for Wales and were known as an Assembly sponsored public body, and this was changed by the Schedule 3 of the Wales Act 2017 which amended the Government of Wales Act 2006.
The New Year Honours 2008 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 29 December 2007, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2008.
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Lucy Winskell, is a British lawyer who is Pro Vice-Chancellor at Northumbria University. She was awarded an OBE in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours List in recognition for her services to Higher Education and the regional economy in the North East. She has served as the Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear since 18 May 2022.