Why no sport in the new Olympics bill?

Construction, regeneration, funding, transport, tourism, culture, planning, finance, ticketing, commercial rights, security, sustainability, infrastructure, organisation - just a few of the topics that will very quickly fill the in-tray of London's organising committee for the 2012 Olympic Games. Important as these issues are, they do not explain why most of the UK united behind London's bid, or why the spine tingled when Jacques Rogge said the magic word 'London' in Singapore 11 days ago. There was one reason behind all this euphoria. Sport.

As both the Prime Minister and Lord Coe have so often said, the core reason they put so much effort into supporting London's bid was for sport, and because of sport. Sport can deliver so much. It really is 'a health policy, an education policy, an anti-crime policy, an anti-drugs policy' as the Prime Minister often says.

British sport, and successive governments' sports policies, have rightly been criticised - especially in this newspaper's recent 'Vote Sport' campaign - for short-termism and lack of coordination in both the public and private sectors.

Sport has been woefully underfunded for decades. Britain's sporting infrastructure and participation rates are alarming decline. Billions of pounds are needed to get local clubs and local authority facilities up to scratch. While 60 per cent of 16-year-olds do some form of sport, that plummets to just 25 per cent when they leave school.

Now, with the inspiration of London 2012, there is an opportunity to make a real impact in these areas. There has never been a better opportunity or bigger challenge. Work must start now on the sporting legacy from 2012. It is by making inroads into these figures that we will measure the real success of the Olympics. And it can be done.

A government that can move from the fiasco of Pickett's Lock - the venue that never was for the 2005 world athletics championships - to winning the Olympic bid in just four years, should find the task of rejuvenating and inspiring Britain as a sporting nation, with the golden thread of the Games, well within reach.

There are crucial early decisions to be made and any errors will be costly. If the London bid was the most important one for Tessa Jowell, the Cabinet minister who is ultimately responsible for sport and now also the Olympics, then next year there is another that pushes it close. It is her bid to the Chancellor as part of the Spending Review for the funding needed to transform sport in Britain. This is a bid for sport in the whole of the UK, not just for redeveloping east London, and it can touch every family in the country. If Britain can beat the French to host the Games, then we must now look to beat them in investment in sport. They lead with a per-capita spend of £109 to our £36.

Our sporting-delivery systems are a real problem. Jowell should be given the financial muscle to deliver across all areas. If the Games are to create the legacy we are promised, a designated minister with responsibility for sport and the Olympics is needed in every major department of state that has a legacy role - Education, Health, Home Office and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

That is why the Olympics bill is a missed opportunity. It quite rightly deals with important issues such as commercial rights, touting, organisation structures and transport. The one topic missing from the bill is legislative change for sport.

Here, in a perfect world, are some key amendments the secretary of state could make to the legislation to capitalise on the win:

1) The new legislation should place a statutory duty on every local authority in the UK to deliver a national sporting strategy. They would be required to set out a structured plan explaining how their community will to contribute to, and benefit from, the Games and the wider sporting vision that London 2012 embodies. It needs to focus on participation and volunteering. As the Prime Minister said recently, investment in sport is the 'best bang for your buck'. That message must be turned into reality across the whole of the public sector.

2) A 15-year national sports campaign needs to be built around the Games, promoting the benefits of taking part. If this is taken on with just half the verve and commitment that has gone into London's bid, it stands a chance of being the most successful sports campaign any nation has ever run. Every governing body of sport and recreation in the country must have a part to play, regardless of whether or not they are among the 26 Olympic sports. Who better to lead and run the campaign, to inspire those involved from the school team to the national squad, the volunteers, the umpires and referees, than Sebastian Coe?

3) The Olympic bill should create the power to establish 'Olympic Parks' across the UK, with at least one in every region. These Parks, which in many cases will tie in with existing regional centres of excellence, should be high-class multi-sport venues, offering the best in facilities, coaching and development. They should be regional centres of excellence for future Olympians and paralympians; training camps for overseas teams in the build-up to 2012; and they should be the local focus for engagement and interest in sport and the Olympics across the nation, leaving a lasting legacy of the Games for every community.

4) Key Olympic sports need to be made statutory components of the PE national curriculum so young people can sample them, and become involved.

5) At a major sports conference last week, the British Olympic Association and British sport called for simplified funding structures. Quite rightly, sport wants to focus on participation and nurturing excellence. Too much effort is diverted into negotiating funding. Primary legislation on the face of this Bill is probably the only way to cut through this bureaucracy.