HC Deb 10 July 2003 vol 408 cc944-5W
Nick Harvey

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the Department has spent on the UK Sports Institute in each of the last 10 years; and what proportion of that funding has been allocated for grassroots sporting activity. [122837]

Mr. Caborn

The decision to establish the United Kingdom Sports Institute (UKSI) was taken in 1996.

The UKSI is the name given to a network of centres and a central team of experts that helps the country's top sportsmen and women to win medals in major tournaments like the Olympics and the World Athletics Championships. It provides much needed world class facilities and a higher standard of co-ordinated support services to high performance athletes than the UK has ever had before.

The Institute is made up of four Home Country Sports Institutes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with a central services team, which is part of UK Sport, based in London. The funding provided to the Home Country Institutes is a matter for the Devolved Administrations.

Funding by DCMS to support the UKSI is found from both the exchequer and the lottery. UK Sport expends exchequer funding, while Sport England use their Lottery funds. The level of expenditure is for these organisations to determine. Details of their expenditure on the UKSI is shown in the following table:

£
UK Sport Sport England
1996–97 210,000
1997–98 164,000
1998–99 339,000
1999–2000 414,000 900,000
2000–01 11,404,000 3,100,000
2001–02 3,046,000 14,700,000
2002–03 3,142,000 39,100,000
1 For this financial year only, UK Sport spent Lottery funding on the UKSI.

While the primary focus and purpose of the UKSI is to assist our top sportsmen and women, all the facilities in the network can also be enjoyed by the local community, when not being used for elite training.