UK Sport responds to public accounts committee report
SubscribeUK Sport 24 July 2008
The Public Accounts Committee today (Thursday) published its report “Preparing for Sporting Success at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Beyond”. The report notes the demanding goals that have been set for the 2012 Games and recommends that UK Sport publish an action plan soon after the Games, clarifying medal targets and how any performance weaknesses amongst sports will be addressed.
Responding, John Steele, UK Sport’s Chief Executive, said:
“The hosting of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games is a watershed moment in the nation’s sporting history and UK Sport is the organisation charged with delivering medal success in 2012. It is a responsibility we take extremely seriously. As a result I am pleased that we have already progressed a number of the key recommendations contained within the report.
“We have already informed sports exactly how we will allocate funding post-Beijing: taking performance at the upcoming Games into account but also looking at the future potential of the sport. And we have confirmed that we will be in position to finalise four year investment levels and the 2012 medal targets that they are based on by December of this year, at which stage we will need to have had confirmed the level of resource available to us for the London Olympiad.
“As part of this process, we have published a set of ten ‘Investment Principles’ which set out not only how we intend to make funding decisions for London, but also what we expect that funding to deliver in 2012 and beyond. The document also proposes the creation of a Performance Charter, outlining how all the partners within the nation’s elite sporting system can work together more effectively in the run-up to the Games – another suggestion contained within the Committee’s report.
“We acknowledge the Committee’s finding that our annual medal targets for sports in the years leading up to 2012 need to be challenging to ensure we hit our ultimate goals. The ‘stretch’ targets for the sports across the next four years will ultimately still be beyond that which we need to meet our overall goals: what is crucial is that we are able to see the necessary progression each year across the range of sports.
“To drive successful performance in London, UK Sport created Mission 2012 a year ago as a monitoring and evaluation tool designed to assess sports’ progress against their performance ambitions. It provides a means by which to identify sport specific issues or challenges that stand in the way of success and resolve them as swiftly as possible. The process has already resulted in a number of ‘quick wins’ and is receiving increasingly positive responses from sports as it focuses minds on what needs to be done to meet the ambitious goals we have set ourselves for the Games. We strongly believe that Mission 2012 is the most effective method we have to deliver the success that everyone, from athletes to the members of the Public Accounts Committee, craves.”
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