Big Way Of Life

London's bid to host the Olympic Games included some big promises: by 2013 one million more people would be playing sport three or more times a week, with a further million engaging in more physical activity. These targets were criticised from the outset because they focused on people who were already active, and because no other host city has managed to increase sports participation as a result of hosting the Games.

More than two years into the four-year period covered by Labour's Whole Sport Plan, the number of people playing sport three or more times a week has gone up by just 109,000, and the number of people playing no sport at all has increased.

Tessa Jowell, the shadow Olympics Minister, told the Legacy Ready summit held by the Fitness Industry Association and the Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity that she had no regrets about setting the ambitious targets.

"I am not somebody who is allergic to a small, selected and purposeful group of targets. Transparency is important and those two targets in sport and physical activity were focused on creating a sense of national mission and purpose," she said.

Writing in the Huffington Post last month, she stated:"The promise we made in Singapore to inspire a new generation of young sportsmen and women, is under threat," and went on to highlight a number of ways in which the Coalition Government has made cuts or failed to deliver on sports in schools. She also pointed out that the Government has abolished the annual School Sports Survey, making it impossible to gauge the effect of cuts they have made.