§ Mr. LeslieTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proposals he has for the World Class Performance Programme for the United Kingdom's top athletes. [78043]
§ Mr. Chris SmithThe Sports Cabinet met for the second time on Wednesday last week and decided on a package of Lottery support to back our top sportsmen and women.
The Government will shortly lay before Parliament an Order which will make the UK Sports Council a Lottery distributor and earmark a percentage of the Lottery Sports Fund for them to distribute for the UK's best sportsmen and women for them to train and prepare for competition.
A joint scheme has already been pioneered by the four Sports Councils for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
720WThis decision builds on that scheme and its success, makes a strong commitment to future funding, and, for the first time, ensures that the top UK athletes from whatever part of the country are backed by a single unified and well run scheme.
Regular and independent reports to Ministers and to the UK Sports Council on the way the money is being spent, and its effectiveness in helping the UK's top athletes to maximise their potential and achieve sporting success, and in bringing medals and championship titles to the UK, will be built in from the outset.
This programme will be closely linked to the development of the UK Sports Institute. The Government has already announced the new direction it is giving with more of the Institute's facilities built throughout the country where athletes actually want to live and train, and a strategic Headquarters to co-ordinate services and set standards across the national network.
As a consequence, the balance of expenditure between Headquarters and regions will change with more being spent on the regional facilities in line with the results of wide consultation of athletes and governing bodies which the Sports Councils have carried out, and the required funding for capital work on the Headquarters building being accordingly substantially reduced. The Headquarters will concentrate on its crucial role of oversight of the provision of the best in sports science and medicine, and quality assurance of the network sites, and will now be the direct responsibility of the UK Sports Council.
In line with that policy, Ministers have now decided that greater emphasis should be placed on training and preparation programmes. The proposed Order will earmark a percentage of Lottery funding, which should generate £20.5 million for the World Class Performance and Events Programmes.
Within this sum of Lottery funding, it is expected that the UK Sports Council should have about £2 million annually to help attract to and stage major sporting events in this country. The Sports Cabinet sees a close link between these programmes. They will both benefit all parts of the UK fairly, where close joint working is needed if we are to succeed on the international scene—and the best possible place for a top performance is in front of an enthusiastic home crowd against the best world competition.
These two programmes will be closely co-ordinated with the work of the four Home Country Sports Councils, who will continue to back excellence in sports which compete separately as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and in helping to identify and support up-and-coming talent.