asked Her Majesty's Government:
How much money, over and above the £600 million package of financial support announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Budget Day 2006, will be devoted to meet his pledge of 25 October that “every talented young sports star should have extra support to help them train and develop”. [HL649]
The £600 million package of financial support for high-performance sport, managed and allocated by UK Sport, is the primary route of support for talented young athletes in Olympic and Paralympic sports who have the potential to compete and win in international competition. Government and UK Sport assess that there are now sufficient levels of funding in the performance system to 2012 to ensure that genuine world class talent is not lost to summer Olympic and Paralympic sports.
The national governing bodies (NGBs) of English non-Olympic sports receive funding from Sport England through their whole sport plans and will use a proportion of this to identify and support talented athletes. In addition, the Government's school sport strategy provides access to a range of non-Olympic sports, and talent in particular is supported through the gifted and talented scheme. Since 2003, over £6.5 million has been invested in this scheme.
The talented athlete scholarship scheme (TASS) enables talented athletes to continue in their sport beyond the age of 16 while pursuing further or higher education. TASS 2012, a strand of the TASS programme, supports our most talented 12 to 18 year-olds in a variety of Olympic, Paralympic, non-Olympic and non-Paralympic sports. Between 2004 and 2008, the Government will have committed £ 17 million to TASS and TASS 2012.
Lastly, government funding extends to the advanced apprenticeship in sporting excellence programme, which is a structured national training and development route across all sports for young people who have the realistic potential to achieve excellence in their sport and perform at the highest level. Up to £15 million is being invested into this two-year programme.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether their policy to ensure that every talented young sports star should have extra support to assist in training and development extends to non-Olympic sports; and, if so, whether they will ask the central council for sport and recreation to provide a list of such talented sports stars for additional grant funding. [HL650]
The national governing bodies (NGBs) of English non-Olympic sports receive funding from Sport England through their whole sport plans and will use a proportion of this to identify and support talented athletes.
For those sports that run high-performance programmes, Sport England and UK Sport are discussing how UK Sport's expertise could add value to these programmes. UK Sport also provides funding directly to the UK non-Olympic sports of waterskiing and orienteering.
The Government's school sport strategy provides access to a range of non-Olympic sports, and talent is supported through the gifted and talented scheme. Since 2003, over £6.5 million has been invested in this scheme. The talented athlete scholarship scheme (TASS) enables talented athletes to continue in their sport beyond the age of 16 while pursuing further or higher education. TASS 2012, a strand of the TASS programme, supports our most talented 12 to 18 year-olds in a variety of Olympic, Paralympic, non-Olympic and non-Paralympic sports. Between 2004 and 2008, the Government will have committed £17 million to TASS and TASS 2012.
Government funding also extends to the advanced apprenticeship in sporting excellence programme, which is a structured national training and development route across all sports for young people who have the realistic potential to achieve excellence in their sport and perform at the highest level. Up to £15 million is being invested into this two-year programme.
The Government do not intend to ask the Central Council of Physical Recreation for a list of talented athletes, but would encourage it to share any information it has directly with the NGBs.