The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (pictured left) was speaking at the Government's inaugural Disability Sports Summit held at the Emirates Stadium in London today.

The conference heard that while the United Kingdom has a strong tradition in Paralympic sport at the elite level much more needs to be done to boost participation levels among disabled people.

Worrying figures published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) show that just 17 per cent of adults with a disability play sport each week.

As a consequence Hunt has called on all sports governing bodies to take advantage of the unique opportunity created by the London 2012 Paralympics to integrate disability sports provision into their Whole Sports Plans.

"In the year that the Paralympic Games come home I want to see a transformation in sport for people with disabilities," said Hunt, formerly Shadow Minister for Disabled People from 2005 to 2007.

"Now is the time for everybody to up their game, creating real sporting opportunities for disabled people.

"That's why within the School Games [initiative] I'm delighted that we now have disabled children playing competitive sport alongside their peers."


At the Sainsbury's 2012 School Games finals next month, which conclude at the Olympic Park in Stratford, six sports will boast disability competitions.

School Games includes a compulsory disability sport element within its programme.

It was announced at the summit that Sport England will be investing £8 million ($12.9 million/€9.8 million) of funding from the Places People Play programme to help overcome some of the barriers that make it hard for disabled people to enjoy sport.

The summit itself was the first of its kind to focus on disability sports.

It brought together disability sports bodies across the UK to help drive the Government's objective of making disability sport a higher priority, share best practice, and strengthen relationships between sports bodies and wider groups representing or working with disabled people in the community.

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