Question: Would you be keen to see sports super schools?

Kate Hoey: No it's not a question of super schools. Specialist sports colleges are straight forward comprehensive schools that have an interest in and a commitment to sport which has meant that under the criteria they have been assessed as being a school where sport can be used not just to enhance the participation and involvement of everybody at the school in sport and the neighbouring schools, but also as a vehicle throughout the curriculum using sport to help young people be more interested in other subjects and to raise the level of academic achievement in the schools. So I'm very keen to see more specialist sports colleges. Where we have got them, and they're beginning to roll out now all over the country, they're doing a terrific job. They're involved in partnerships with some of the governing bodies of sport - for example the Lawn Tennis Association has put money in so that schools have a specialism in tennis, and therefore youngsters are being given the chance to play tennis. But it isn't about one school, it's about partnerships between the specialist sports college and all the other secondary schools in the area, and indeed the primary schools. So yes I'd be very happy to see more of them.

Question: OFSTED inspectors have been inspecting sports standards in schools - what have they found ? Kate Hoey: The first thing I did as minister was meet Chris Woodhead and asked about OFSTED inspections in sport and physical education because it seemed to me that that was an area that was not getting a full attention. I wanted to know if, in areas such as swimming, young people, particularly in primary schools were getting a good quality experience of physical education and sport. And I'm very pleased that OFSTED is doing more now. I think it's absolutely crucial that areas that are not academic necessarily, although of course there's more academic work going on now with physical education in schools with a lot of schools doing GCSE and A Level, that they are measured so that everyone is subject to the same kinds of criteria about what is good quality and what is excellence.

Question: You've mentioned swimming. What other areas are you concerned about?

Kate Hoey: I think we're doing quite good work in schools. We've recognised that over the years there had been a down turn in school competitions and team sports and that's one of the things that is being emphasised now. And the new schools sport co-ordinators will have quite an important role in increasing the amount of competition that's going on and helping physical education teachers, who school sport co-ordinators will be - of course they will be qualified physical education teachers in order to become a school sport co-ordinator - to help improve that. Physical education teachers are doing a terrific job, it's just that in some schools perhaps there's less going on than could be given that two schools of the same resources and the same number of PE teachers, the same background of children, if one school is doing a lot better than another, then it's quite useful to know why.

Question: You're committed to delivering 2 hours of sport a week. When would this actually happen?

Kate Hoey: We're committed to giving all young people in secondary school a good quality experience of physical education and school sport. Now here again I stress I do wish people would understand the difference between physical education and sport. Physical education and sport is not the same thing. Physical education prepares young people and gives them the skills and the opportunity that then they can get involved in a sport of their choice. What we want to see is the time made available during the week to enable that good quality physical education experience. Very much of our school sport by nature has to take place after school anyway. You can't play a proper cricket match, or football match, or rugby match in school time. So a lot of it takes place after the school hours anyway. And more and more of the school day is being blurred as to what is in the school day and what goes on after school. More and more the resources that are going into our schools are to make them a real focus of the community.

Question: So it wouldn't be 2 hours within school hours?

Kate Hoey: Well in some schools they're doing more than two hours within the curriculum now. And some might be doing slightly less. We have said that everyone is entitled to two hours. You could argue whether it should be two hours, three hours, four hours, one hour. The important thing is that it's good quality and that it's leading on to opportunities that can be realised after school.

Question: But would it be two hours within the school day?

Question: A number of schools are reluctant to hold sports days with competitive events ?

Kate Hoey: I've found fewer and fewer of those and I've made a point of going to school sports days rather than school prize days. I think that's history now. There was a time when competition was not encouraged but I think that's gone. I've yet to visit a school where they have not been very keen to increase the amount of schools sport competition.

Question: So you wouldn't see the need for sensitivity for children who aren't good at sports to have to compete in this sports competitions?

Kate Hoey: There's all sorts of sport that doesn't involve team competition or competition against anyone else. But sport in its nature is testing yourself even if you're not competing against somebody else so I don't think there's a problem there. And good physical education teachers know when a young person is not able to do something and is not confident enough to be able to do it or is feeling perhaps embarrassed by doing something. And that's where it's important that they are trained properly to be able to cope with youngsters of all abilities.

Question: What would be your big idea to boost possible sports participation in a possible second Labour term? Kate Hoey: Well I think already the key to it all is what's happening in schools - the extra money is going to make a real difference to facilities. I think the way in which we enable youngsters to travel to be able to compete and get to facilities perhaps when you're in a rural area - you might have to travel quite a distance to get to the nearest swimming pool. I think we do have to look at ways of improving the transport, the costs of that, so that schools can afford it. I'm very keen that we don't have one-off glib solutions. What school sports needs is long-term investment, long term sustainability and commitment at all levels to the importance of school sport right across government. I think that's what we're beginning to see.

Question: So are sports facilities in rural areas as accessible as school facilities in urban areas?

Kate Hoey: Well rural areas suffer from various sorts of deprivation. Deprivation is not just about money or unemployment, it's actually sometimes in a rural area more difficult to organise the competitions, it is more difficult for them to get access to facilities. But of course they also make up for that in being able to offer all sorts of other sporting activities because if they're in country areas there's other things that can be done. And what we're doing is ensuring that deprived areas does not just mean inner city urban areas, that actually the definition does include rural areas or indeed areas that have suffered perhaps from a large number of job losses that has made a particular area hit that has not in the past been seen as an area of deprivation.

Question: Arts clubs get charity status so why not sports clubs? Kate Hoey: Well changing charity laws is a very drawn out process. Historically, and I think it's very sad really that sport has not been treated in that sense as a charity but it's a minefield. What we are looking to do is see if we can find the same kind of tax exemptions to small amateur community sports clubs. That's really going to make a difference because it will help any of them who are paying corporation tax but it will also help people give money and leave money to clubs. It's been something that people in sport have demanded and wanted for a long time and I first personally argued for it I think in my first year as a Member of Parliament. So I'm very keen to see that happen. But like all these things it's important to get the Treasury to agree and that's what we're working on.

Question: How concerned are you on the influence of TV and satellite and big business over big sports?

Kate Hoey: Well clearly television has brought huge money into sport but it is only to small number of sports. So there's two things: first of all how we can make sure that those sports that are getting the television money are making sure they've got a plan for that, that is about the development of their sport long term and making sure that the money's getting down to nourish the grass roots of the sport. We're seeing that happen more and more - cricket and rugby have been putting substantial amounts of money, as with tennis, from their television money down to the grass roots. More recently football has come on board by creating the Football Foundation and putting 5% of its television money. Other sports are putting more than 5% and obviously we would like to see the aspiration of them all putting as much as they can. But most governing bodies of sport realise that that's how the future of their sport lies and whether they can get youngsters to participate and get into it, and they can no longer sit back and just assume that everyone's going to want to play rugby or football, and they now have to compete with lots of other things that young people have the opportunity to do, like playing around on computers.

Question: So you're comfortable that these governing bodies are responding rapidly enough to the changes of sport?

Kate Hoey: Yes. I think some of them have responded very early on: cricket was one of the first bodies to ensure money went into the grassroots and of course we've seen in the recent survey that cricket's one of the sports where there's an increase in participation amongst young people. We have to find ways of those sports that don't get television coverage can get money that is going to help them at their grass roots, because we don't want to end up with a situation in ten years' time when people have only got a choice of three or four sports because those are the only sports that are getting money at the grass roots from television.

Question: Could you see some of the bigger sports donating money?

Kate Hoey: I think there might well be ways - of course some of the facilities can be multi-use. The Football Foundation could try and make sure that some of their facilities can be used for other sports - such as hockey for example. But then maybe longer term the governing bodies themselves will decide that they want to ring-fence an amount of money that can be used to help other sports to help get involved. One of the most important things we are doing now is putting more money into coaching, recognising that coaching is something that in this country is not taken very seriously. Of course coaching, if the money is coming from one sport into it, it can help to improve the coaching in other sports as well.

Question: Looking at the broadcasting rights for the forthcoming World Cup... ?

Kate Hoey: We will continue to fight any threat to the showing of World Cup matches on terrestrial television. We are very clear that our listed events have been agreed by the European Commission and are perfectly legal. I think it is highly unlikely that there will be a situation where the World Cup finals are not on terrestrial television.

Question: What are you doing to promote country sports? Kate Hoey: Angling and shooting receive money from Sport England, and some of them are also developing quite good long term plans to get more young people involved. I've done a lot of work with some of the angling groups - there's one particular group up in Durham which has as its slogan Get Hooked on Fishing, and is about introducing children in schools to angling, and not only to the pleasure of fishing, but also to the environmental aspects of it - the need to preserve fish and all that kind of thing. I think where it's recognised as a sport they're doing quite well. Shooting is doing extremely well now because it got extra money so that we could have the Commonwealth Games - they got a quite substantial amount from the Lottery to improve their facilities. Obviously the success at the Olympic Games has been a great boost to the competitive side of the sport.

Question: Wembley Stadium - critics are calling it the new Millennium Dome. How do you respond to that?

Kate Hoey: Well Wembley's a football run stadium, it's not a government stadium, it's not a government project. The sports Lottery gave £120 million in order for them to buy the land. When the National Stadium Company was set up more recently they didn't raise the money and so Sir Rodney Walker was asked to come in by the Football Association to see how they could go back and get into a situation where they might be able to raise the money. We're being as supportive and helpful as we can but it's not a government run project.

Question: In terms of promoting London's bid to host a future Olympic Games, who would take the lead - government ministers or Ken Livingstone?

Kate Hoey: Well first and foremost the British Olympics Association themselves have to decide whether they want to make a bid. Bids don't come from government, bids come from cities. Bids only come from cities if the BOA has asked a city and the city has agreed. First of all the BOA has to decide whether they want it, whether it's viable, where they think it should be. Clearly we're involved in that from a government point of view because we have a manifesto commitment to encourage and support world class events. And then London being the city, which is clearly where we have already said that they would want it to be, would take a very important role, as all cities have in the organising and making sure that the infrastructure is there - really doing all the work that we saw Sydney doing over the last eight years. And we're not at the at stage yet and they'll be no decision about the possibility of a London bid for 2012 until we have the results of where 2008 will be, and that won't be until July.