FUTURE PARTICIPATION OF LEARNING DISABLED ATHLETES IN THE PARALYMPICS

Early day motion 321, tabled 7 December 2004 by Martin Caton (Labour). Signed by 61 members.

That this House warmly congratulates the International Paralympic Committee on its decision, on 25th November, by 74 votes to 18 not permanently to ban learning disabled athletes from paralympic events; appreciates the strong defence of the rights of athletes with a learning disability presented by the British Paralympic Association at this meeting; urges the International Sports Federation for People with Intellectual Disability to continue to make progress on developing a robust verification and protest system to establish clear eligibility criteria for learning disabled athletes; calls on the International Paralympic Committee to work for the earliest reinstatement of athletes with learning disability into the paralympic family to ensure their participation in the Beijing Games in 2008; and further calls on the Government, UK Sport and sports national governing bodies to provide adequate and appropriate funding for the reintegration of learning disabled athletes into training programmes for the Paralympics.

Signatures by party: Labour 36, Liberal Democrat 10, Scottish National Party 5, DUP 3, Labour/Co-operative 3, UUP 2, Conservative 1, Plaid Cymru 1.