The British Paralympic Association was incorporated as a Company limited by guarantee in April 1989 and registered as a Charity in November 1989.

  The BPA's remit is to organise and co-ordinate British participation in Winter and Summer Paralympic Games and to assist Governing Organisations of Paralympic Sports in Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the preparation of competitors in their respective sports for the Paralympic Games. However, since BPA's inception in 1989, it has assumed a wider remit to support the Paralympic sports squads as they have moved from a disability structure towards a sports specific structure and to advise National Governing Bodies (NGBs), Sports Councils, Government, media and corporate partners on elite disability sport more generally. The BPA is the British member of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

  In relation to international events, the BPA has the following powers in furtherance of its charitable objects:

—  To ensure that appropriate arrangements are made for the organisation of the Paralympic Games whenever they are awarded by the International Paralympic Committee to a host venue in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

—  To assist in the participation of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in any other Games or Festivals of Sport sanctioned by the International Paralympic Committee.

—  To hold or assist in holding exhibitions, competitions and shows for the purpose of promoting the objects.

  Since incorporation the BPA has been responsible for the co-ordination of the Great Britain Teams for the following competitions: World Youth Games Miami 1989, World Games Assen 1990, Tignes Winter Paralympics 1992, Barcelona & Madrid Summer Paralympics 1992, Lillehammer Winter Paralympics 1994, World Athletics Championships Berlin 1994, World Swimming Championships Malta 1994, Atlanta Summer Paralympics 1996, Nagano Winter Paralympics 1998, World Athletics Championships Birmingham 1998.

  The Great Britain Paralympic Team continues to be one of the most successful Paralympic Teams in the World finishing third at the Barcelona Games in 1992 and fourth at the Atlanta Paralympic Games.

  The BPA has observer status on the National Olympic Committee and liaises with the British Olympic Association in order to co-operate more closely in areas of mutual interest.

BPA Policy Statements Relevant to Staging International Events

  The BPA believes that the same opportunities for participation and competition in their chosen sport should be available to competitors with any disabilities as exist for their non-disabled peers.

  The BPA supports the present situation whereby events for athletes with disabilities in the Olympic programme are limited to exhibition/demonstration status only.

  The BPA is committed to seeking changes to the IOC charter which will ensure that, whenever possible, the Olympics and Paralympics are held in the same venue, with bids being considered jointly by the IOC and IPC.

International Paralympic Committee

  The International Paralympic Committee was established in 1989. Its remit is to award, supervise and co-ordinate Winter and Summer Paralympic Games and multi-disability World and Regional Championships. Its voting members are National Paralympic Committees, international disability specific sports organisations (IOSDs) and sports in the Paralympic programme (currently 24).

  The sports are split into three categories; those which are IPC sports and represented and organised within IPC by a sub-committee, those which are single disability sports and therefore organised by IOSDs and independent sports governed by a sports specific international federation, eg the International Wheelchair Tennis Federation.

Brief History of Paralympic Games

  The disability sports movement was started in 1948 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville. Since 1960 there have been "Paralympic Games" of some sort every four years in the same year and country as the Olympic Games. The exceptions to date were 1968 (when the Olympics were in Mexico and the Paralympics in Israel), 1980 (when the Olympics were in Russia and the Paralympics in the Netherlands) and 1984 (when the Olympics were in the USA and the Paralympics were split between the USA and the UK). The Seoul Paralympics in 1988 were the first at which Paralympic Teams used the same facilities as their Olympic counterparts.

  Since the inception of the IPC, the international event cycle has been structured on the Paralympic Games held just a short time after the Olympic Games with the even year between Paralympic Games designated for World Championships and the odd years given to regional championships (Europeans for British competitors).

International Disability Events held in the UK

  In 1994, World Championships were staged in the UK for the sports of wheelchair basketball, equestrianism and sailing. The organising committees were formed from representatives of the relevant sport specific disability organisations. In 1995, European Championships were staged in the UK for fencing and soccer and World Championships for lawn bowls.

  Between 1998 and 2000, 24 World Championships will have been staged. The regional distribution of those Championships sees Europe staging 55 per cent, the Americas with 21 per cent, South Pacific 8 per cent and Africa, East Asia and the Middle East each with 4 per cent. Locations for 4 per cent of the events are yet to be confirmed. Just two of those Championships have been staged in the UK for the sports of archery and athletics, both in 1998.

International Disability Events Strategy

  There has never been any cohesive UK strategy for bidding for and staging international disability events.

  The United Kingdom Co-ordinating Committee on Sport for People with Disabilities (UKCC) was established in 1991 as a forum to enhance the co-operation, liaison and communication between the BPA, NDSOs, home country disability sports organisations and Sports Councils.

  In 1997 the UKCC established a sub-committee to consider a major disability events strategy, the intention being to identify priority events and criteria against which lottery support would be recommended to the Major Events Support Group. The draft strategy was produced but without consultation with any Paralympic squad or appropriate governing body.

  The UKCC also advocated the idea of 1998 becoming a year of sport to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the disability sports movement by Sir Ludwig Guttmann. Two events became the focus—the World Archery Championships held at Stoke Mandeville and the World Athletics Championships held in Birmingham.

  Whilst the celebratory year did not take place as a year of sport as planned, both Championships were staged successfully and provided British competitors with the opportunity to compete again the World's best on home ground and obtain good qualifying results in preparation for the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

World Athletics Championships, Birmingham, 9-16 August 1998

  During 1995 and 1996 discussions were held between representatives of the UKCC and Birmingham City Council on the possibility of staging the Championships at the Alexandra Stadium. A postal bid was submitted to the IPC in July 1996, with notification in November 1996 that Birmingham was being recommended to the IPC Executive over the only other bid from Cairo. Formal confirmation of the award came on 24 February 1997.

  The national governing body for athletics at that time, BAF, was in financial difficulties and the BPA therefore assumed the role of a surrogate governing body for the sport for the purposes of submitting the bid to the IPC and making a lottery application to the Major Events Support Group. There was no direct involvement from the governing body although many mainstream officials were involved in the successful staging of the event.

  The lottery application was successful and the event was awarded £534,000. Birmingham City Council's contribution in value in kind totalled £262,000, with additional support from the EU of 30,000 ecus, £14,600 from local businesses, other VIK £15,000 and entry fees paid by team members amounting to £519,563.

  The overall attendance of Teams totalled 1,400 people, of which 550 were wheelchair users. It is difficult for any major city to identify fully accessible accommodation, facilities and transport for this size group but the University halls proved adequate with the transport provision being the greatest success of the Championships operations. Alexandra Stadium also used the opportunity to obtain capital lottery funding for improvements to access in the sports facility.

  The overall view widely held amongst disability sport is that the Championships were staged professionally and were highly successful. The Australian Team topped the medal table with 30 golds, followed by Great Britain with 25 and Germany with 20.

  The British Team was the largest with 97 athletes and 45 staff. The opportunity of a World Championships on home ground provided the opportunity to blood developing athletes, as well as test the medal potential of established athletes against the World's best in preparation for Sydney 2000.

The Bidding Process for Olympic Games and Paralympic Games

  Cities bidding for the Olympic Games are at present asked within the bid dossier to reply as to their intentions to also host a Paralympic Games. The Paralympic Games is not a compulsory element of an Olympic Games bid.

  In December 1996, the IOC President announced during a meeting with the IPC Management Committee that a motion would be introduced during the IOC Meeting in March 1997. This motion would require cities bidding for Olympic Games to include within their bid the Paralympic Games. At this time, this motion has not been considered and approved and a bid for the Olympics does not yet require the Paralympics to be a mandatory component.

  The British Paralympic Association and the British Olympic Association have not yet held any discussions on the inclusion of the Paralympic Games in a potential London 2012 Olympic bid, but the BOA Chief Executive has given assurances that the BPA will be included in the deliberations at an appropriate future point.

Commonwealth Games

  Between 1962 and 1974 the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games Council staged disability events to coincide with Commonwealth Games. This practice then lapsed between 1974 and 1994. In 1994 the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee for Victoria, Canada were made aware of Canadian Law which did not permit the exclusion of athletes with disabilities in the Victoria Games. The Organising Committee resisted but then conceded and events for elite athletes with disabilities were included in swimming, athletics and lawn bowls. The negativity associated with the reason for the inclusion was compounded by derogatory statements by the Australian Chef de Mission who was also a CGF Vice President about the presence elite athletes with disabilities at the Games, poor take up of the 100 allocated places for elite athletes with disabilities in Victoria and continued lobbying by activists for the inclusion of the medals won by the athletes with disabilities in the final medal table.

  The Organising Committee for Kuala Lumpur stated from the outset that it would not include events for athletes with disabilities and given Malaysia's attitude towards people with disabilities this issue was not pressed.

  At its Executive Meeting in Atlanta 1996, the Commonwealth Games Federation formed a Sub-Committee on Events for Athletes with a Disability to recommend the most effective routes and procedures for the development of competition for athletes with a disability and any possible areas of involvement in association with successive Commonwealth Games. The Sub-Committee held its first meeting in London on 31 October 1996. The Committee commissioned a survey of the Commonwealth Games Associations to determine participation levels in Paralympic sports and preferences for inclusion in Commonwealth Games. The survey results were considered by the Sub Committee at its second meeting in Malta on 7-8 February 1997 and seven recommendations were prepared for the CGF Executive meeting in March 1997. Those recommendations were accepted by the CGF General Assembly in 1997 to apply to all bidding cities from 2006 onwards. The recommendations are attached at Annex 2[4].

  The timing of the recommendations meant that the CGF could not impose any contractual obligation upon Manchester 2002 to include disability events but a recommendation was made for Manchester to consider adding events in conformity with the longer term recommendations. However, Manchester's positive stance on equal opportunities and support of sport for athletes with disabilities has resulted in the Organising Committee considering an eight event programme from five sports.

Exhibition Events

  Exhibition events for athletes with a disability are held at the Olympic Games and IAAF Championships in the wheelchair 1,500 metres for men and the wheelchair 800 metres for women. In the case of the World Athletics Championships, the events have moved from having exhibition status to full medal status.

UKSC Events Strategy

  The World Class Performance Programme requires Paralympic Performance Plans to be submitted through the relevant National Governing Bodies. This requirement has not been adhered to in full and a number of different models and relationships between Paralympic squads and their respective governing bodies have emerged. The majority of NGBs have struggled to assume responsibility for the Paralympic element of the sport and this applies as much to performance programmes as to the bidding and staging of international events.

  The UKSC Major Events Strategy refers to international disability sports events in terms of categorisation but does not recognise the lack of any cohesive strategy or driving force in bringing international disability sports events to the UK. As previously mentioned, a draft outline exists from the UKCC but in light of developments with the UKSC Events Strategy and World Class Programmes, it is now time for this area to be revisited, with the emphasis on a co-operative, proactive approach between the Paralympic sports and their respective NGBs.

  There are the same strong reasons for bringing international disability sports events to the UK as able bodied events. There would also be significant additional benefits; firstly, the improvement of access in local and national infrastructure (sports facilities, accommodation, transport) serving the general public and not just people with disabilities and secondly, heightened and sustained public awareness of the abilities and achievements of athletes with disabilities.

Recommendations

  For the UKSC to require National Governing Bodies of sport to include within their international events strategies, international sports events for athletes with disabilities, so as to ensure consistency of policy with all other lottery revenue sports programmes.

  For the National Governing Bodies and Paralympic sports squads, with the support of the British Paralympic Association, to work together to consider, produce and implement an international events strategy, on sports specific and not disability specific lines.

  For the UKSC to recognise that National Governing Bodies will require support, through financial means and education, in order to fulfil that responsibility.

  For the Lottery Sports Fund to continue to offer equity in supporting international disability sports events.

  For the British Paralympic Association, through the International Paralympic Committee, to pursue changes to the Olympic Games bidding process to make the inclusion of the Paralympic Games a mandatory component of all bids, both Summer and Winter.

  For the British Paralympic Association to seek support as appropriate, for full consideration of the inclusion of Paralympic Games in any London Olympic Bid.

March 1999