Lord Holmes of Richmond
Main Page: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)
Lord Holmes of Richmond
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the allocation of resources for the Great Britain Olympic and Paralympic teams due to compete in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)
My Lords, through UK Sport, the Government are investing £355 million into summer Olympic and Paralympic sports during the Rio 2016 cycle, which is an increase from London of 7% into Olympic sports and 45% into Paralympic sports. Our ambitions for Rio are to be even more successful than London in both the Olympics and Paralympics, which no host nation in history has achieved. With record investment, UK Sport believes that this is attainable.
Lord Holmes of Richmond (Con)
My Lords, Olympic and Paralympic sport is fair set for Rio, underpinned by unprecedented UK sport funding. Does the Minister agree that, post-Rio, there should be no compromise to the UK Sport no-compromise funding model? Does he also agree that we all owe a tremendous debt to the father of the lottery, Sir John Major, whose vision, drive and determination transformed the sporting and cultural framework of our nation for the better for ever?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, as one of our greatest Paralympians and the only Briton to win six gold medals at a single Games, my noble friend comes to these matters with exceptional experience. I entirely agree with him about Sir John Major and that many of the causes favoured by so many of your Lordships have been transformed because of what was done with the National Lottery. Looking at Sochi, where the no-compromise principles were adhered to for the first time, and the great successes at the Olympics and Paralympics, what my noble friend says has a lot of merit.