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Lords amendment agreed to.
Clause 31
Lords amendment: No. 3.
Estelle Morris: I beg to move, That this House agrees with the Lords in the said amendment.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): With this we may discuss Lords amendment No. 4.
Estelle Morris: As this is the final group of amendments, I join the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Mr. Robertson) in taking the opportunity, on behalf of my right hon. Friend the Minister for Sport and Tourism, to thank him and to congratulate all hon. Members, officers and officials who have worked so hard to get the Bill through both Houses.
The amendments, tabled by Lord Moynihan, Lord Luke and Lord Glentoran, are sensible. It is right that they be included in the Bill. It was no one's intention to rule out discussion or consultation with the British
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Paralympic Association. The amendments add the British Paralympic Association to the list of bodies that the Olympic lottery distributor must consult when preparing or revising its distribution policy and to which the distributor must send a copy of any policy or revision.
The Government fully endorse the central role of the British Paralympic Association in our bid for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, and the other place was happy to accept the amendments. I propose that the House accept both of them.
Hugh Robertson: I am delighted that the Government have accepted our amendment. It is even more satisfying when the purpose is so important and the cause so patently just. Lord Moynihan rightly identified that the Bill failed to include the British Paralympic Association in its list of statutory consultees on the Olympic lottery strategy. I am pleased that that omission has been corrected.
It is right and just to take stock of the achievements of our Paralympic athletes and their association. Our Paralympic athletes gained 35 gold medals, 30 silvers and 29 bronzes in Athens. It is right that we should pay tribute to that outstanding achievement. I and other members of my party had the privilege of meeting at our conference in Bournemouth two gold medal winners—Darren Kenny in cycling and Danny Crates in athletics. I am sure that other hon. Members had the same opportunity at their conferences.
Each performance is an individual achievement, but our Paralympians receive an outstanding service from the British Paralympic Association. It is clearly best placed to advise on the specific specialist requirements of its athletes and their sports. The Bill, as amended, will allow that expertise to be tapped into by the new Olympic lottery distributor. That is why I support the amendments.
Mr. Don Foster: Many of us had the opportunity to congratulate our Olympic team and I now echo the words of the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Hugh Robertson) in praise of all members of our Paralympic team.
We fully support the amendments. We are delighted that the Government accepted them, although we acknowledge that they intended to involve the Paralympic organisations at all stages. However, it is an important gesture to include the British Paralympic Association in the Bill because that demonstrates the importance that this House and the Lords place on the Paralympic games. They are a crucial part of the package for which we are bidding in 2012. We are not bidding just for the Olympics to come to London, but for the Paralympic games as well. Both those games will bring an enormous benefit to London and all parts of the UK. It is for those reasons that the Liberal Democrats fully support the activities of the team that is working so hard to ensure that the bid is successful and both games come here.
I share the comments made by others about the effective way in which the Bill was scrutinised in both Houses. I pay tribute to all the members of the
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Committee, who worked hard on the Bill. Will the Minister, who has taken up the baton at short notice, pass a message on to her right hon. Friend the Minister for Sport and Tourism, congratulating him on his work on this and related issues? Nevertheless, there remain a number of concerns about the Olympic lottery fund, which the amendments address.
Members on both sides of the House believe that the new Olympic lottery game will begin if—and I hope that this is the case—we mount a successful bid for the 2012 Olympics. The money that the game will raise, however, is unlikely to be sufficient to meet the overall lottery contribution to the funds. As a result, there will probably be a modest reduction in the money made available to other good causes, and the House understands that the loss will be distributed equally among them. I would be enormously grateful if the Minister confirmed that that is the Government's intention and that nothing in the lottery Bill expected in the Queen's Speech will change that plan. I congratulate the Minister on picking up the baton at such short notice, and I apologise to her, because the House will have noted that she was late for the start our debate, and had to rush into the Chamber. I plead guilty to detaining her, for which I apologise.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. Before the Minister responds, I hope, with regard to the final remarks of the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster), that she will not stray too wide of the mark. The amendments before the House are narrowly drawn, so she may decide to respond to the hon. Gentleman at a later date.
Estelle Morris: It will not be the first time that the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) has led me astray, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
I am grateful to the hon. Members for Bath and for Faversham and Mid-Kent for their favourable welcome for the amendment. I join them in congratulating our Paralympic athletes on their achievement, and I emphasise that the Paralympic games are very much part of the 2012 bid. Our strength in that area will help to make the bid attractive and, we hope, successful. I underline the importance of cross-party support for the bid, and appreciate the backing that our preparations have received from members of all parties.
It is not for me to say whether lottery legislation will, or will not, be announced in the Queen's Speech. How much money will be raised by an Olympic lottery is very much a guesstimate. We do not know how many people will buy tickets or how much will be raised. We hope that the lottery will raise £750 million, but the hon. Member for Bath is right that it is unlikely to raise sufficient funds for other recipients to remain unaffected and I am not going to pretend otherwise. It would be wonderful if that were not the case, but that is not the likely outcome. However, although our figures are very much guesstimates, the "fair share" funding for recipients has worked well since the inception of the lottery. The hon. Gentleman must wait for the contents of any lottery legislation introduced after the Queen's Speech, but I am happy with the success of that funding scheme. He ought not to be afraid that any single recipient will bear undue losses in the effort to provide more money for the Olympic bid. We must wait,
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however, for any such legislation and, as Mr. Deputy Speaker said, to go further may be to stray from the subject of the amendments. However, the hon. Gentleman's question was half-legitimate, so I was happy to answer it.
I hope that the amendment will find favour in the House. I thank hon. Members for their consideration of the Lords amendments, which was indicative of the Bill's passage through both Houses. I also thank them for their patience during my short, late and not very knowledgeable appearance.
Lords amendment agreed to.
Lords amendment No. 4 agreed to.
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School Sport
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Stephen Twigg.]
3.45 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Stephen Twigg): I am pleased to have the chance to set out the Government's strategy on school sport and physical education. Strong support exists on both sides of the House for the promotion of sport in schools and for increased participation and physical activity levels among children and young people. As a minimum, every child, whatever their circumstances, should spend at least two hours a week on high-quality physical education and school sport, both within and beyond the curriculum, and our national strategy is about turning that ambition into reality.
By March 2006, we will have invested more than £1 billion in transforming sport in our schools. We will shortly confirm how much we will spend on school sport in 2006–07 and 2007–08 as a result of the 2004 spending review settlement, and I am confident that we will again make a significant investment further to improve physical education and school sport. Our public service agreement to increase the percentage of five to 16-year-olds who spend at least two hours a week on PE and school sport to 75 per cent. by 2006 and to 85 per cent. by 2008 is ambitious but achievable.
It goes without saying that sport has a proven and essential role to play in many of our priority areas in education. Sport is worthwhile in and of itself, and it contributes to the central educational goal of raising standards. It is crucial to our cross-Government work to enhance the nation's health, not least by tackling childhood obesity, an issue to which I shall return later in my speech. It has an important role to play in improving attendance and behaviour in our schools, issues of which all hon. Members on both sides of the House are well aware, not least in our constituencies.
Sport offers some children their first chance to succeed at school. Such success builds confidence and social skills and engages such children with education, which leads to less disruption for not only them but the school community as a whole, thereby enhancing other pupils' learning opportunities and impacting on academic attainment and standards. For example, one primary school that benefits from the sporting playgrounds programme found that after it zoned its playground, the number of antisocial incidents in the playground fell by about two thirds and the number of children involved in purposeful physical activity significantly increased.
Let us not underestimate the importance and impact of doing well on the international sports stage. May I join hon. Members who participated in the previous debate in congratulating the teams at the Olympics and Paralympics on their performances in Athens and, of course, in wishing our bid for the 2012 games every success?
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