§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on the intended opening date of the UK Sports Institute. [134642]
§ Kate HoeyRecruitment of the key staff of the UKSI Central Services team has been completed. From November 2000, sports will have access to the technical, operational and programme support provided through the UKSI Central Services Team.
The UKSI is also made up of a network of institutes operated by the home country sports councils. The establishment of the English Institute of Sport of the UKSI is on-going. The Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes, the Aquatics Centre and Velodrome in Manchester and the Ice-Centre in Nottingham are already available to athletes. In May/June 2000, the water-based hockey pitches in Birmingham and Cannock were among the first completed new projects. Over £50 million of new lottery funding has been committed by Sport England to date for additional facilities for the English network. It is 59W expected that the majority of the remaining lottery applications, representing over £60 million of further investment in network facilities in England, will be made in the next six months. Once the full building programme has been completed, there will be over 80 facilities that go to make up the English Institute of Sport network.
In addition, the UKSI Scottish Institute of Sport, funded by sportscotland, has been established and operating for 18 months and The Sports Council for Wales has been operating and developing UKSI Cymru for sometime. Both have been providing a range of services direct to athletes including technical training and support, conditioning guidance and supervision, preventive and reactive sports medical support and sports science. The Sports Council for Northern Ireland has identified the University of Ulster as their preferred partner to develop in partnership the UKSI network centre for Northern Ireland. Initial principles of agreement have been signed by both parties and work is under way to identify the most appropriate format to operate the network centre.
I am arranging for copies of the UKSI Quarterly Update report for August 2000—produced by UK Sport—to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses to provide further information on progress of the UK Sports Institute.