Clause 21 - Licensing of Olympic Lotteries
Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Andy Reed (Loughborough, Labour/Co-operative)
It goes without saying that from a high point of £250 million a year, the lottery funding of sport now stands at about £170 million. There are questions about how we spent money during period. We spent £1.6 billion on sport, but participation rates have risen by only 0.3 per cent. It is not just a matter of the total amount, but how it is spent.
I am delighted that there has been a shift in emphasis, and we are going to spend money on driving up participation rates in grass-roots sport because that is where it will make an enormous difference. I partially agree that there has been a decline, and people will clearly be worried about that. I totally support the Olympic bid, and the idea of an Olympic lottery, but with the caveat that we have to watch carefully the impact on sport in general.
However, we have to be really positive and recognise that the impact of the London Olympic bid will be nationwide. Even though Loughborough will
not be one of the major Olympic sites, I hope that it will benefit by hosting one of the major teams at its excellent facilities—the £35 million elite sports facilities that have been funded by the lottery at Loughborough university.