London Olympics Bill

Will my hon. Friend bear with me? There are only a few minutes left for the debate and there are a number of things I want to cover. There will be a £17 billion investment in transport, which will include the East London line extension and the docklands light railway upgrade. Members will be able to discuss the details in Committee. That played a major part in winning our bid because, as Members know, we did not get the best grades for our answers to the 25 questions a year ago last January. Security formed part of our submission; it was part of our candidate file. I believe that the IOC was satisfied with what we were saying about home security and I have no doubt that that matter will be further explored in Committee. I can assure hon. Members that we will not leave it untouched. There is no doubting that we have a first-class security and intelligence service in this country. We were there in Sydney and very much so in Athens; our people were leading the security committees there. Security will be one of the major considerations. On the Olympic delivery authority, I emphasise that it is very important to bring in not just the skilled but the best in the world, and we will search the world to contract those people. We think that they will be attracted because, as has already been said, the national stadium will be more than an Olympic stadium; its design will revolutionise the way that sports facilities are used around the world in years to come. If we can build an 80,000-seater stadium, reduce it to a 20,000 capacity and build it back to a 40,000-seater capacity using designs that we believe are now attainable with existing materials and engineering skills, it will bring a whole new dimension to stadium design. If one looks at the legacy of Sydney, one sees that real difficulties were encountered with its national stadium. We saw what happened in Athens and in Barcelona. We believe that we can introduce a whole new dimension to stadium design. Our proposal to use facilities on a temporary basis and then to move them around the world is an important development, so the challenge to develop such stadiums and associated further facilities, and the opportunity that that presents, is immense. Many initiatives have already been taken to ensure that the skills base and the opportunity for regeneration do not pass the east end by. More need to be taken and a major responsibility of the ODA company will be to ensure that we can drive that quality regeneration in the most effective way. It will also—it is embedded in the Bill—be one of the greenest Olympic games ever and it will be commended by the IOC. We believe that all those elements are now in the Bill. We believe that we have got the structure right. We believe that we have put the right checks and balances in place and taken the correct approach to the budget; that will be very significant.