1.  The Department has yet to begin raising the £100 million it needs from the private sector to fund elite sport, even though we first raised concerns about the size of this challenge nearly two years ago. The Department plans to start its fundraising after the Beijing 2008 Games, although it could not say what it had to offer to attract private sector donors, or provide any guarantees that the money would be raised. The Department should work with its advisors to develop firm proposals for how it will attract private sector donors and in what timeframe it would be realistic to obtain firm commitments.

2.  UK Sport is due to give sports the first £20 million of the money to be raised from the private sector during 2008-09, but it has yet to receive funds to enable it to do so. If the Department cannot raise the full £100 million or it is raised too late, then the Great Britain teams' medal chances at the London 2012 Games could be harmed. UK Sport should identify what action it will take in the 2008-09 financial year to address any shortfall, including how individual sports will be affected. In developing its contingency plans, it should seek to protect the funding of those sports most likely to win medals at the London 2012 Games.

3.  Concerns about what funding will be available have created uncertainty for the sports governing bodies, making it harder for them to plan ahead on the basis of firm financial commitments. After the Beijing Games in 2008, UK Sport should share with sports its contingency plans in the event of a shortfall in funding. To help sports to plan up to London 2012, it should discuss with each sport how its funding might be affected, based on up-to-date assessments of how much of the £100 million will be raised.

4.  The Department and UK Sport's medal table goals at the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 are demanding and UK Sport acknowledges that meeting them will require a step change in the performance of athletes. The Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games later this year will provide a key indicator of progress towards UK Sport's medal table goals for the London 2012 Games. UK Sport should, within six months of the Beijing Games, publish an action plan setting out how it will address any weaknesses in the performance of the Great Britain teams. It should set out clearly what impact its assessment of performance at Beijing has on the medal targets set overall, and for individual sports for the London 2012 Games. UK Sport should also make clear the consequences of any changes it makes to targets on its funding allocations.

5.  Following our 2006 Report, UK Sport has agreed a broader range of targets to measure its own performance, all of which it has comfortably exceeded, indicating that the targets set were not sufficiently stretching. The performance targets UK Sport has agreed with the Department are set at the level of 75% of the targets it sets for individual sports. We do not consider that agreeing targets at 75% of the level it sets for others is satisfactory as an indicator of UK Sport's own performance. In the new Funding Agreement covering the period April 2008 to March 2011, UK Sport and the Department should agree targets for UK Sport at the same level as the aggregate of the targets for individual sports.

6.  The Department is aiming to secure a sustained improvement in sports participation before and after the London 2012 Games, but there is no conclusive evidence that winning Olympic and Paralympic medals influences levels of participation in the community. The Department has a target for two million more people to participate in a sport or physical activity by 2012. It should review existing evidence on how elite sporting success impacts on sports participation and undertake new research where there are gaps in the evidence. In the light of this research, it should work with UK Sport and the home country sports councils to develop an action plan on how it will use sporting success at the London 2012 Games to improve levels of sports participation before, during and after the Games.

7.  UK Sport believes elite athletes can act as role models and inspire young people from all walks of life to take up sport. It holds no data on the background of the 1,400 elite athletes it currently funds, however, and told us it did not consider the information to be relevant. We believe, on the contrary, that this information would provide a clearer picture of who is receiving public funding, and be a basis for identifying opportunities for the Department, UK Sport and the home country sports councils to work together to increase the socio-demographic spread of athletes in some sports, from grass roots to elite participation. In common with other lottery distributors, UK Sport should collect data on the socio-economic and educational backgrounds of the athletes it funds and we find the refusal to do so both unjustified and disturbing.

8.  UK Sport is aiming to establish a world class system of support for elite athletes which will last beyond 2012. Its success in doing so will depend on its ability to work effectively in partnership with a range of other parties in the public, private and voluntary sectors. The Department should establish a steering group to co-ordinate the activities of all those seeking to deliver its sporting objectives before, during and after the London 2012 Games. The group's remit should be to exploit opportunities for its members to work together on initiatives to maximise the sporting benefits and legacy of host nation status. A key objective should be to enhance the links between grass roots and high performance sport so as to make the most of the opportunity presented by the increased spending on both sports participation and elite athletes.