Millennium Commission

The Millennium Commission logo

The Millennium Commission in the United Kingdom was set up to celebrate the turn of the Millennium and aid communities at the end of the 2nd millennium and the start of the 3rd millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery.

The Commission was originally set up in 1993 through the UK government the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. It was an independent non-departmental public body. 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 cabinet Minister was also a Commissioner. During Tessa Jowell's tenure as Chair the second Minister was Richard Caborn.

Income from the National Lottery ceased in August 2001, but distribution of project grant funding continued until the Commission was abolished on 30 November 2006. At this point all its remaining funds and its responsibilities were taken over by the Big Lottery Fund. Over £2 billion was given to fund buildings, environmental projects, celebrations and community schemes.

The Millennium Commission ceased to exist on 1 December 2006.[1]

Examples of projects funded

Commissioners

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:

Previous commissioners

References

  1. ↑ The National Lottery Act 2006, section 16(1)(b); the National Lottery Distributors Dissolution Order 2006 (S.I. 2006/2915), articles 1(2) and 2 (as read with article 1(1) of the Big Lottery Fund (Prescribed Expenditure) Order 2006 (S.I. 2006/3202))

External links