What her most recent estimate is of the cost of staging the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.

I shall answer speedily, Mr. Speaker. The cost of staging the games will primarily be met from the £2 billion budget of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, which was raised principally from the private sector. The costs of additional wider security and policing, and a £66 million public sector contribution towards the Paralympic games, are contained in the £9.3 billion public sector funding package.

As would be expected with a major national event of this kind, there will also be other attributable costs to the public purse, and they will be funded from within departmental expenditure limits.

Sport transcends politics. Every party in the House wants the 2012 Olympic games to be an outstanding success for the benefit of our great country. Can the Minister give any further details about which operations may be scaled back if there is a shortfall in sponsorship and revenue from the private sector? That is important: we want a success, but we also want the facts.

The hon. Gentleman is right that the Olympic games are being planned and delivered on a cross-party basis as far as humanly possible. The second point, however, is that as the development of the park has proceeded, decisions have been taken to put in further public sector investment where private sector financing has not been forthcoming. In staging the event, the organising committee will take full account of the likelihood of meeting its budget, which it expects to do. It is also worth the House recording that the committee is already substantially ahead of its private sponsorship-raising activities, so we have cause for confidence on that point.