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Six ministers, 13 departments but no single leader
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent4 Sep 2008
The chaos hampering London's 2012 sporting legacy is revealed today. No single individual is dedicated to realising the promised Olympics sports legacy and there are growing fears that the ambitious scheme will end up mired in bureaucracy.
Andy Burnham, the head of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, plays a key role in delivering the 2012 sports legacy but relies on the co-operation and budgets of Cabinet colleagues.
The DCMS has delegated half the burden to a handful of other departments and details of whether targets are being met have been slow to emerge.
Much depends on schools secretary Ed Balls and Hazel Blears at the Department of Communities and Local Government. Their departments are responsible for school sports participation and any improvement in public sports facilities, such as swimming pools, tennis courts and running tracks.
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell is nominally tasked with cross-Government Olympic policy but has no dedicated budget for legacy while her team of civil servants is occupied with cost controls.
A report from research group sportsthinktank.com showed that 13 Whitehall departments are involved in sports policy, four sports ministers (one for each home nation), a secretary of state and an Olympics minister.
There are four national sports councils plus UK Sport for elite performance and the Youth Sport Trust for school-club links.
The report said Government influence over sport policy has increased "despite claims of an arm's length relationship" and with excessive power given to quangos such as the grassroots agency Sport England.
Mr Burnham recently dismantled the regional structure of Sport England after research by the Liberal Democrats revealed operating costs of £29million compared to the £20 million it spent on its community club development programme.
Liberal Democrat shadow culture secretary Don Foster said: "Too much money is still being wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy. It's hardly surprising that the Government has no chance of meeting its numerous sporting targets. When there's such an enormous number of organisations involved it is impossible to tell who is responsible for what."
Brigid Simmonds, chairman of the Central Council of Physical Recreation, said: "There are myriad organisations involved in organising and funding sport and it must sometimes be difficult for someone wanting to become more active to know where to turn."
A DCMS spokesman said: "The system for delivering grassroots sport is simple. There is one department (DCMS) and one agency (Sport England). Our school sports system was recently praised by the European Union as a model to follow. We need to make more progress on the Olympic legacy work to deliver participation targets across government."
Reader views (3)
The responsibility for the London Olympics lies not with Government but London City Hall and the Mayor, Boris Johnson.
Equally it is Boris that has to deliver Legacy in London.
If the Olympics fail, then it is the Mayor of London who shoulders the blame.
- Charlie Orton, London, 05/09/2008 10:15
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In May this year Radio 4 looked at the position of diving facilities, which the GB Diving Federation (a voluntary body) had been looking at for some time. Our work showed that we had lost, nationally, over 75% of all public diving facilities in England and over 90% in London.
The DCMS had been quoting 64 diving facilities. This was wrong, the figure was about 86, but only 70 were available to the public.
At the Radio 4 interview, the DCMS suddenly came up with an 'official' figure of 171 diving facilities!
This was from Sport England and backed by the Amateur Swimming Association.
5 months later the ASA admitted that there are actually 84 facilities.
The problem is that there is little or no accountability and far too much burocracy. Now, even more power and less accountability is being put to the unelected and undemocratic Sports Governing Bodies.
London has lost over 90% of facilities for diving, and well over 95% of availability in terms of time. This however is not seen as a problem. The fact that the majority of Londoners are outside of the accepted max travelling time to have access to a diving facility of any kind is not a problem.You can't build a pool with diving for local people to use, it has to have a 'coaching programme' in place. Fun and enjoyment is not now an option.
Now we hear that football may get the Olympic stadium, that will be a great legacy for athletics! Football's the only sport that's had any investment for years and it's commercial!
- John Whitby, Peterborough, Cambs, 05/09/2008 10:05
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Six ministers, 13 departments and yet I bet no one will accept any blame should the Olympics in 2012 NOT deliver.
But, I would also bet that every one of them would leap up for recognition and reward should it be a success.
Remember that Committee's meet for hours but only take minutes.
- Steve, Cirencester, UK, 04/09/2008 11:18
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