The report, published on 24 January 2007, can be found on the UK Parliament website.

DCMS thank the Select Committee for their report and will respond to it fully in due course.  We welcome their recognition of the significant progress made so far and their belief that, "London can and will host a Games as good as any ever seen".

We welcome an open debate on the issues identified in the report and Tessa Jowell is absolutely committed to transparency on the budget for 2012. That is why she gave the Committee as much information as possible when she met them in November and why she undertook to report back to MPs when outstanding budget issues are resolved. 

We are working hard across Government to conclude these discussions.

This is the biggest public sector building project in Europe and, as you would expect, we are applying rigorous financial controls to ensure that every pound we spend is well-spent. Some costs have risen but that is principally because of the importance of ensuring a long-term legacy from 2012.

We are confident that the benefits to this country from hosting the Games will far outweigh the costs – a view confirmed by a report from consultants Arup last week. They estimated that benefits to Australia from the Sydney Games in 2000 out-stripped costs by more than two to one. We are committed to doing at least as well.

Our progress so far has been praised by the International Olympic Committee but we must keep up the momentum – we don’t have a day to lose.