Lords quiz sports organisations including the Lawn Tennis Association and the Football Association on Olympic Legacy
As Wimbledon begins, the Lords Committee investigating the Olympic and Paralympic legacy will question the Communications Director of the Lawn Tennis Association, as well as senior representatives of six other national sports organisations, in three evidence sessions this week.
On Wednesday 26 June at 10.45am, the Committee will hear from:
- Robert Sullivan, Head of Corporate Affairs at the Football Association;
- James Munro, Communications Director at the Lawn Tennis Association;
- David Meli, Chief Executive of the England Handball Association; and
- Richard Caborn, former Sports Minister and Chairman of the Amateur Boxing Association of England.
They will be followed at 11.45am by:
- Ian Drake, Chief Executive of British Cycling;
- Richard Callicott, President of the British Volleyball Federation; and
- Niels De Vos, Chief Executive of UK Athletics.
They will be quizzed on issues including the factors which drove the improved performance of Team GB from Beijing to London; whether the facilities for training and competition developed to host and support the games have legacy benefits for their sports; their reaction to the latest sports participation figures released by Sport England; and whether it is realistic to expect the Games to deliver a long-term legacy of increased participation in sport, including disability sports, when other Games have failed to do so.
The following day, the Committee will hear from David Luckes, author of the original London 2012 Games feasibility study and former Head of Sport Competition at LOCOG.
He will face questions on issues including how the 2012 bid differed from those previously submitted by the UK; how different the alternative proposal of a ‘West London' Olympics might have been and whether its legacy would have been substantially different; how the design of the legacy plan sought to deliver benefits to the whole of the UK; and what lessons might be learnt from the bid process by those bidding to bring future major sporting events to the UK.
The evidence sessions on Wednesday 26 June will take place at 10.45am in Committee Room 3. The evidence session on Thursday 27 June will take place at 10.00am in Committee Room 4.
The session will be webcast at www.parliamentlive.tv and is also open to the public. Journalists wishing to attend should go to Parliament's Cromwell Green Entrance and should allow time for security screening.
