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.

Composition

Set up in 1993 by the National Lottery etc. Act 1993, the Commission was an independent

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

. Commissioners were appointed by the

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

on the advice of the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

; the chair of the commission was, for most of its life, the

secretary of state for culture, media and sport The secretary of state for culture, media and sport, also referred to as the culture secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and po ...

, and for most of its life a second government minister was also a commissioner. During

Tessa Jowell Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, (; 17 September 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a Labour Party (UK), British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) f ...

's tenure as chair the second minister was

Richard Caborn Richard George Caborn (born 6 October 1943) 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 ministe ...

, as minister for sport, who preceded Jowell in the department by one day, and who left the department contemporaneously (when

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

became prime minister).

Closure

The Commission was wound up in December 2006 and its role was transferred to the

Big Lottery Fund The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for " good causes". It is the largest community funder in the UK and ...

Examples of projects funded

The Commission invested over £2 billion in buildings, environmental projects, celebrations and community schemes. Funded projects include: * Black Country Urban Forest * Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne * Dundee Science Centre *

Eden Project The Eden Project () is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay clay pit, pit.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map 107 – Fowey, Looe & Lostwithiel''. . The complex is dominated by two h ...

, Cornwall * Falkirk Wheel *

Glasgow Science Centre Glasgow Science Centre is a visitor attraction located in the Clyde Waterfront Regeneration area on the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Queen Elizabeth II opened Glasgow Science Centre on 5 July 2001. It is one of Scotland's ...

* Winchester Science Centre (formerly INTECH) * Five Millennium piers for

London River Services London River Services Limited is a division of Transport for London (TfL), which manages passenger transport—leisure-oriented tourist services and commuter services—on the River Thames in London. It does not own or operate any boats itself, ...

Magna Science Adventure Centre Magna Science Adventure Centre is an educational visitor attraction in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. Location The site used to be home to the Steel, Peech and Tozer steelworks (also known as Steelos). In 50 AD it was the site of ...

, Rotherham * Millennium Bridge, London *

Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millen ...

, London * Ceramica, a museum in

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in ...

, Stoke-on-Trent about the area's

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

industry (closed in 2011) * The Millennium Forest for Scotland * Millennium Greens in cities, towns and villages * Millennium Point, Birmingham * Millennium Seed Bank, West Sussex *

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

, Cardiff *

National Centre for Popular Music The National Centre for Popular Music was a museum in Sheffield, England, for pop and rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, deve ...

, Sheffield (closed in 2000) * National Space Centre, Leicester * Odyssey Centre, Belfast * Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh * ReDiscover, Newcastle upon Tyne (joint venture with the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

and the

Wolfson Foundation The Wolfson Foundation is a British registered charity that awards grants to support science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities. It was established in 1955 and re-registered in 2014. , the endowment of the Wolfson Fo ...

) * Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth * Sheffield Winter Garden * The Deep, Hull, an aquarium * Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff * A number of village halls and community meeting places

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: *

(Chair), Minister for Sport *

Floella Benjamin Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin (born 23 September 1949), is a Trinidadian-British actress, singer, presenter, author and politician. She is known as presenter of children's programmes such as ''Play School (British TV series), ...

, actress and author * Heather Couper, broadcaster and writer on space * Judith Donovan, health and safety commissioner *

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket Media Group in 1957. Heseltine se ...

, former Conservative cabinet minister

Previous commissioners

* Virginia Bottomley * Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville * Lord Clark of Windermere * Jack Cunningham * Matthew d'Ancona * Richard Scott, Earl of Dalkeith *

Stephen Dorrell Stephen James Dorrell (born 25 March 1952) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He served as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough between 1979 and 1997 and then for Charnwood from 1997 to 2015. Dorrell most recen ...

* Sir John Hall * Robin Dixon, 3rd Baron Glentoran * Sir Simon Jenkins *

* Lord Montague of Oxford *

Mo Mowlam Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (18 September 1949 – 19 August 2005) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar (UK Parliament constituency), Redcar f ...

* Barbara Roche * Baroness Scotland of Asthal * Baron Smith of Finsbury

References

{{Reflist

External links

Millennium Commission website
(archived 22 December 2006) Organizations established in 1993 Organizations disestablished in 2006 Defunct public bodies of the United Kingdom 1993 establishments in the United Kingdom Turn of the third millennium