Sporting Talent (Hansard, 17 January 2000)

§ Kate Hoey

The United Kingdom Sports Council (UK Sport) was established in January 1997 to focus on high performance sport at the UK level, with the aim of achieving sporting excellence on the world stage. The work of UK Sport, in liaison with the four Home Country Sports Councils, is to build a framework for success. Crucial to this is underpinning the base of participation and ensuring opportunities for youngsters to participate both in and out of school.

The United Kingdom Sports Institute (UKSI) will provide our best sports men and women with the facilities and services they need to help them compete successfully at the highest level. The UKSI will be made up of a central services, to be part of UK Sport, and a network of centres throughout the UK, which are being delivered by the Home Country Sports Councils. These will deliver a range of sports science and sports medicine services, including sports physiology, biomechanics, sports nutrition, physiotherapy and podiatry.

Work has also been undertaken in full consultation with Performance Directors, coaches and athletes to identify the services they need to support them in their training and competition programmes—such as, the Athlete Career and Education programme (ACE UK) and the High Performance Coaching Programme (CPD), both launched last year—to be delivered directly to our top athletes and coaches.

The development of sporting excellence, including disability sport, is also being provided through the World Class Programme. Over £80 million has already been made available from the Lottery to some 33 sports and over 2,000 athletes for World Class Performance. World Class Start and World Class Potential (to be funded from the Lottery by Sport England) will provide £25 million per annum to find, nurture and develop those with the characteristics and sporting talent to achieve success at the highest sporting level.