During the five years that I shadowed my current job in Opposition, one complaint dominated all others - namely that the organisation of British sport was too disparate and complicated. Report after report urged Government to simplify the structure and, to be fair to them, many of my Labour predecessors agreed.

That process has been given added impetus by the financial situation that we have inherited. Given this backdrop, it is incumbent on me, as the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, to ensure that as much money as possible reaches the front line - whether it is to athletes preparing for London 2012 or to the sport national governing bodies and community sports organisations trying to increase participation.

At the end of last month, we, therefore, announced that UK Sport and Sport England would be brought together under one roof. I also want to incorporate as much of the Youth Sport Trust (YST) as is practical, given their charitable status, into the new body. In my mind, it will retain separate divisions for elite sport, community sport and school sport, largely replicating the functions of the existing bodies.

However, it will produce a more unified and coherent structure and will enable the new organisation to share a number of back office and associated functions. It will also end the unfortunate current situation where all three organisations occupy separate, and expensive, Central London offices - although, to be fair, the YST’s London base is relatively small.

This should not be seen as a reflection on the performance of the current organisations. UK Sport played a key part in delivering our record medal haul in Beijing and Sport England’s new Whole Sport Strategy, focused on increasing participation through sport national governing bodies, is already yielding promising results. The Youth Sport Trust, which has achieved much in recent years, is also vital to the delivery of the new Schools Olympic-style competition - that will drive up the amount of competitive sport played in schools.

As you would expect, given that the coalition Government is barely three months old, some of the detail remains to be finalised.

In particular, we need to safeguard the UK focus of UK Sport’s work through arrangements that command the confidence of our partners in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We also need to decide upon an appropriate location for this new body and the exact governance arrangements to control it.

The Youth Sport Trust’s status as a charity needs careful handling and I am also acutely conscious of the need not to disrupt preparations for London 2012, either in athlete or community sports legacy terms. It is, therefore, likely that we will wait until 2012/13 before vesting the new body.

Having lived through a period of structural change whilst I was in was in the army in the early 90s, I know that this has the potential to be an unsettling period for those working in the organisations affected. I have already been to Sport England to talk to the staff about this and will make a similar visit to UK Sport after the summer break.

However, this is a genuine opportunity to make the structure of sport more unified, focussed and cost effective. Post-2012, I want this country to have the best sports structure anywhere in the world.

It would be a fantastic legacy from London’s Olympics.

Hugh Robertson is the Sports and Olympics Minister