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Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012

My Lords, I thank everyone for their contributions this evening. It has been a fascinating debate and I have listened to all the different angles that noble Lords come from and all the comments made. The only interest I have to declare is as a past Olympian and one who has been totally and absolutely committed to this project. We talked earlier about cross-party support for a national project. If ever there was an example of a national project in the national interest, with all the parties coming together to support the Government of the day, I would suggest that this is it. Many Members in the Chamber tonight are part and parcel of that effort. I should like also to join others in congratulating John Armitt and his team in the ODA and my noble friend Lord Coe and his team in LOCOG on the great progress they are making in the preparations for hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. Many milestones have been accomplished in the development of our Olympic park, most of them ahead of schedule and within budget, which was set in 2007. As my noble friend Lord Coe said, in the past six months or so LOCOG has brought in nine new sponsors and raised almost £600 million. The Olympic stadium is being completed at a speedy rate and other Olympic venues outside London are steadily being developed. The Olympic village, which will accommodate over 23,000 athletes and officials during the Games, is on track. I understand that Triathlon Homes has purchased 1,379 of the new homes that will become available as affordable, high quality housing for local people after 2012. This is a commendable start, not to mention the progress being made on the green transport links into the Olympic park. The objective is to get 100 per cent of the spectators into the Games by walking, cycling or public transport. The necessary improvements are due for completion by the end of 2010. During the six weeks of the Games, competitors, officials and the media will travel to the venue by road. I ask the Government this: what measures are being taken to limit the impact that that will have on congestion in the area, and taking up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, what measures are in place to ensure that the vehicles used are as green as possible? The 2012 Games are beginning to transform the landscape of east London. However, despite these achievements, there remain issues within some aspects of the management and organisation of the Games which I wish to bring to the attention of the Minister, and I look forward to his response on these matters. It is common knowledge that parts of the journey towards 2012 have not been straightforward, particularly in relation to the Government’s budget miscalculations. The budget has soared from approximately £2.3 billion to £9.3 billion—we know the history of that—leading to unprecedented raids on good causes money from the National Lottery. Over half the contingency fund has already been spent, delivering only a third of the Olympic programme—I think that that is slightly out of kilter; it is probably nearer 50 per cent of the programme by now—and there have been funding cuts to sports such as shooting and water polo because of the £50 million shortfall against the Government’s promise of £100 million. This has been brought about by the Government’s failure to raise a single penny from the private sector against this commitment. As your Lordships will remember, there was a commitment from the Government to put £100 million into that pot, but they raised no money from the private sector for it, hence the £50 million shortfall. How does the Minister propose to develop a grass-roots sporting legacy—about which we have heard a great deal today, especially from my noble friend Lord Moynihan—if the lottery funding intended for this purpose has been diverted to other areas of the Games? Is he confident that the current funding levels for all sports are sufficient to give the UK the best chance possible to beat its medal tally at the Beijing Games? While it is welcome that funding for smaller elite sports has been increased, what impact does the Minister feel the redistribution of funds away from other sports, such as rowing, will have on our medal prospects in these disciplines? Certain sports, such as gymnastics and badminton, have had to be moved from their proposed venue—a temporary site near the O2 Arena in north Greenwich—to Wembley Arena because of concerns about funding. Can the Minister tell the House why these events have to be moved to temporary sites, thereby destroying any permanent legacy for these sports, if the preparations for the Games are running to budget? I have had many arguments with local people and Tessa Jowell about the movement and siting of some of these sports; however, I shall be interested to hear the Government’s position. How are the Government ensuring that a physical legacy remains for sports such as shooting and equestrian events, which are also being held in temporary arenas? What measures are being taken to ensure that businesses around Greenwich Park will not be unduly affected by the hosting of the equestrian and modern pentathlon events? Is the Minister confident that the contingency funding allocated to the Olympic village can be recouped by May 2010? Can he update the House on whether progress has been made to find a permanent tenant for the Olympic stadium after the Games? The LDA has run up an overdraft in acquiring the land; it has also budgeted for land receipts set at 2007 levels. This has caused a twofold problem of spending more than it thought and potentially getting back less than it expected. Can the Minister explain further how the land value receipts will be balanced in the LOCOG or ODA budgets and what impact that will have on their sponsorship targets and ticket pricing? Most significantly, my noble friend Lord Patten has spoken at length about the worries and concerns over security. When do the Government propose to publish the security cost plan, which is bound to be a significant item, as demonstrated by my noble friend? Can the Minister say with whom the responsibility for security will lie? Is it ODA? Is it LOCOG? Is it various departments within the Government, or some other agency such as MI5 or MI6, or the Met? One of the most pressing issues is the policing requirements for the Games. We know that the Metropolitan Police will be under significant stress, with each borough having to accept a 2.5 per cent reduction in policing 12 months prior to and six months after the Games. The Metropolitan Police Authority has to recruit 10,000 extra specials to compensate for this extraction. What progress has been made so far on this? It is well known that for an event of such a scale, there is a shortfall of specialist policing capabilities, such as canines and armed officers. How are the Metropolitan Police addressing these shortfalls? Will they at least in part rely on the assistance of other police forces throughout the country for these capabilities and to meet normal policing requirements? My concern for many officers having to brought in from outside London is that their ability to respond to any security-related incidents—although, of course, one hopes that there will not be any—outside the Olympic arenas will be lessened. What progress has been made in developing a national demand profile for the policing requirement? The risk of displacement is real; those seeking to attack the Games might go not for areas such the Olympic site but for other locations that will none the less affect the running of the Games and confidence in the event. Who is going to pay for the security management and so on during the time period between the ODA finishing the venues at the arena and the Olympic park and LOCOG taking them over? As I understand it, it looks as though there could well be a gap or void of a year or almost 10 months between completion by the ODA and the taking over by LOCOG. They will need to be maintained, guarded and looked after. Finally, the Olympics were won on a commitment to use the Games to inspire a whole generation to take up sport. Participation in sport is tremendously important to society, especially to the young. It has the ability to change social patterns, improve health and transform lives. Sport England will invest £880 million in sport over the next four years to create a world-leading community sport system. We look forward to hearing more details on the success of that investment. The Government’s flagship proposal for a community sports legacy was to offer free swimming to all those over 60. However, the inflexible administration system and limited funding is preventing local councils from delivering that pledge. When will the Government revise the scheme and honour their flagship commitment? Finally, as I said in my introduction, this is an exciting time. The Games are nearly here. Again, I congratulate everyone who has worked so hard to deliver these results. I wish all the projects success in their further development and emphasise to Her Majesty's Government the importance of ensuring, at almost any sacrifice, that there is a real and lasting legacy for sport for all of the United Kingdom post-2012.