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UK Sport uses National Lottery money to support elite athletes competing at the highest levels of sport for the United Kingdom or Great Britain[1] by providing funding, through its World Class Performance Programme, to national governing bodies of sport and to individual athletes. During the Athens Olympic cycle from April 2001 to March 2005, UK Sport awarded £83.5 million for 17 Summer Olympic and 15 Paralympic sports.
On the basis of a Report[2] and subsequent memorandum[3] by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Committee examined the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and UK Sport on the use of lottery money to support elite athletes competing in Athens in 2004 and Turin in 2006, and on the plans for Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.
In Athens, Great Britain finished 10th in the Olympic medal table, achieving UK Sport's target of 8th to 10th, and 2nd in the Paralympic medal table, missing the target of 1st. The majority of funded sports did not meet the medal targets they had agreed with UK Sport and 10 sports delivered no medals.
As well as targets for the Olympics and Paralympics, UK Sport has a number of other performance measures for the World Class Performance Programme. During the course of the Athens Olympic cycle, however, UK Sport's performance reporting was erratic and not always accurate.
At the time of the Committee's hearing, UK Sport had awarded funding of £98 million for the Beijing Olympic cycle from 2005 to 2009. For all the sports that underperformed in Athens, UK Sport has cut funding and/or reduced the number of athletes supported for Beijing. UK Sport has also identified a number of sports which it expects to do better in the future, including athletics.
Looking ahead to London in 2012, UK Sport told the Committee it would not set a medal table target until it knew what resources were available. The Committee learned subsequently, however, that UK Sport's 2003-06 funding agreement with the Department had included a target to finish 5th in the medal table in 2012, and that UK Sport's funding submission to Ministers had set out a range of funding options for 2012 with associated targets. The Department and UK Sport have since acknowledged that they could have made matters clearer in their original evidence. The Government has now announced a funding package of £600 million to support elite athletes in the run up to 2012, including £100 million to be raised from commercial sponsorship.
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