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London Olympics Bill

My hon. Friend knows me well enough to know that I am particularly concerned about that danger. It would be great if we were to find an additional £50 million a year for elite sport in this country and were to finish fourth in the medal table, but what would be the legacy for our sporting future? A great deal has been done—for example, we have largely achieved our objectives on school sport. On elite sport, those of us who know what is happening in the English Institute of Sport, which will form part of UK Sport, feel that we can deliver a great deal with additional funding. On grass-roots sport, although some good work is going on and a lot of additional funding is coming in, it will take a great deal more work to reach our objectives, and we are not quite there yet. My worry is that taking £750 million away from existing lottery causes would make that job even harder, and we must think more about the money that is currently available. As hon. Members know, I chair the national strategic partnership for volunteering in sport. The problem is that we are making the situation harder and harder for volunteers, which makes it harder and harder for people to participate at a grass-roots level. That is not necessarily the Government’s fault, because a number of agencies are involved. I hope that the lasting legacy of 2012 is not the grand stadiums, which will nevertheless be fantastic, but a genuine passion for sport and the money to deliver it.