Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Bob Laxton (Labour). It was answered on Monday, 10 December 2007 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Lottery Funding

Question: Where will funding for activities such as cycling and walking come from in future? As a result of the redefinition of sport, which I understand excludes cycling and walking, there will be a shortfall in funding. Is that money likely to come from Departments such as the Department of Health, rather than the Department for Culture, Media and Sport?

Answer: No, we are committed to the goal that we set out in the Olympic bid of raising participation by 2 million. Sport England's role in that is to raise participation in sport. One of our promises in the Olympic bid documents was to create a world-class infrastructure for sport in this country. We are well on the way to doing that in school sport; we have gone from 20 per cent. of young people doing two hours to more than 80 per cent., and we are now well on the way to five hours. On elite sport, the Australians are now copying us, rather than the other way around. Our priority is to deliver a world-class community sports infrastructure, to match that of school sport and elite sport.

Secondary information