To ask the Minister for the Olympics what assessment she has made of the likely impact of the 2012 Olympic Games on UK economic growth over the next five years; and if she will make a statement. (174908)

We expect that the 2012 games will have a positive impact on UK economic growth over the next five years.

The 2012 games provide a wide range of opportunities for business growth across the UK, both in terms of direct games related contracts, but also in terms of delivering fitter more innovative businesses able to compete for wider procurement opportunities. Economic growth will also be boosted by the job creation arising from the games, strategies to drive up the skills base, not just in East London but across the UK, and a reduction in worklessness. The games also provide an opportunity to increase inward investment into the UK. Our aim is to ensure these benefits will be spread around the whole of the UK, not concentrated in London.

The forthcoming Legacy Action Plan will set out the programmes that are being developed to boost the contribution of the games to the UK economic growth rate.

To ask the Minister for the Olympics what levels of EU funding will be available in relation to the 2012 Olympics. (174911)

The £9.325 million public sector funding provision for the Olympics announced on 15 March 2007, further details of which I gave in my statement on 10 December, does not include any funding from the EU.