What steps her Department is taking to ensure the 2012 Olympic games encourage grass-roots participation in sports across the UK.

We are committed to driving up grass-roots participation in sport across the whole of the UK. We are working with key partners to maximise the benefits of hosting the games by building on existing programmes to encourage more people to become involved in sport.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that building work is well under way at my old school, Ernest Bevin college, in Tooting, to develop a dojo and sports complex, thanks to more than £500,000-worth of Big Lottery funding? The complex will be open not only to the school's 900 pupils, but to more than 350 pupils from local primary schools and, potentially, to hundreds of local residents outside school hours.

I know that my hon. Friend is very proud of that welcome development, which can be mirrored throughout the country. Such developments will prove very valuable. Starting next year, as we build to 2012, we hope to run an annual national schools' festival of sport throughout the nations and regions—Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the north, the midlands and the south—in which all our young people will be able to participate and thereby develop sporting excellence. Importantly, part of the legacy of the games will be a competition structure in our schools that will probably prove second to none in the world. That will put to bed once and for all the idea that competition is not important in sport.

Does the Minister agree that any efforts to increase grass-roots participation in sport will be rendered almost worthless if schools continue to sell off their playing fields at the present rate?

I have heard some old records over and over in this place, but that is the oldest one. It must be a 75 that is still going around—[Interruption.] I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer that I gave some months ago, in which I reminded the House that when in government, the Conservatives were closing 40 playing fields a month. For the first time, we have had a net gain in playing fields, not to mention new sports facilities and synthetic pitches. We have had the biggest investment in sports facilities that this nation has seen for many years. I hope that he puts his 75 record away for Christmas.

Hon. Members:

78!

I am probably too young to remember 78s. My right hon. Friend is right to emphasise the success that we have had at school sports and, by 2010 and the lead up to the Olympics, we will have school sports and competition at the level at which we would like to see it. For those areas—Bath, Sheffield and Loughborough—which know what they are doing in terms of elite sports, we recognise the advances that have been made. But the major challenge remains the link between schools and clubs and local participation at a level that we can all see in our local communities. If we are to make the Olympic games a success, the real legacy will be not great stadiums and gold medals, but participation levels that match the best in the world. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that additional funding is made available for that over the next 10 years?

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Some 70 per cent. of those leaving school do not continue in active sport. That is a major fault line in the structure of sport in this country, and it is why we have now invested some £60 million, through governing bodies, to strengthen the club structure. The school to club link is very important if we are to have a sustainable—and I mean sustainable—sports infrastructure. The investment that we are putting in through the 400 school sports partnerships, which have been widely welcomed, would be worthless if it did not continue after young people had left school. Therefore, we are working with the national governing bodies to develop the school to club structure.

I am pleased that all the governing bodies have now signed up to the coaching certificate, which will give us—for the first time—a five-level coaching scheme. We are investing heavily in that and we will have some 3,000 community coaches, who will also work on the school to club link. That shows that we are taking the issue seriously and investing in a sustainable sports infrastructure for the first time for many years.

The Minister will be only too aware of the extreme disappointment among Olympic athletes at the lack of any extra funding in the pre-Budget report. Is he able to tell the House today whether he shares the British Olympic Association's stated aim of moving Great Britain from 10th to fourth in the medal tables by 2012?

It is unfortunate that we have knee-jerk reactions on this subject. Everything I have said today points to our efforts to put sustainable and well-funded structures in place. From 2001 to 2009, we will invest slightly more than a quarter of a billion pounds in elite athletes, irrespective of what my right hon. Friend the Chancellor does in any discussions that we have with him now. Obviously, everybody wants to see the UK do well in 2012, but judgments have to be made against the information available and the investment that we have made. It is unacceptable for people to say that we are going to move from 10th to fourth in the medal table when they do not have responsibility for funding and then, in a knee-jerk reaction, blame a Chancellor who has increased world-class funding since 1997 by just under 25 per cent. We will discuss investment in elite sport with the Treasury.

What assessment she has made of the opportunities available to cultural organisations arising from the 2012 London Olympic games.

London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to establish a lasting legacy of participation in and engagement with cultural activities across the British population.

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. In Plymouth and the south-west we are working hard to meet the challenge of improving our cultural offer as well as our sporting offer as we move towards 2012, working with organisations such as Sport England and the Big Lottery Fund. A number of key events are already planned; some are sport-related, while others link to national figures such as Darwin or Brunel or to special events such as the abolition of slavery. Will my hon. Friend confirm that his Department will continue to encourage and support areas outside London, contrary to recent press reports, as we strive both to celebrate and to benefit from the Olympics?

Absolutely. My hon. Friend will know that we appointed Jude Kelly to champion cultural activities across the country and we are about to appoint a director for Olympic activity across the country. That is key: 2012 gives us the opportunity to showcase what every region in the country can do. Indeed, beyond 2012 all our cultural facilities, such as theatres, and the cultural activity of our young people will receive a boost, and the south-west is key to that.