The Conservatives would scrap the wide range of sports bodies and replace them with a single "British sports foundation", David Davis has announced.

The shadow cabinet minister said the new foundation would be chaired by the government's minister for sport and would replace existing "wasteful and duplicated structures".

It would allow more than £8 million to be redirected towards broadening participation in sport and increasing performances of the UK's sporting elite.

Organisations which would be scrapped under the plans include UK Sport, Sport England and the regional sports boards.

Davis said: "At the moment, too much money is wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy in sport.

"By restructuring sport in the UK, we will be able to channel money directly to increasing participation and developing sporting excellence.

"Our policy will offer real choice and lead to highly-motivated and high-quality support to encourage talent and interest."

The party also plan to establish an independent UK anti-doping agency, to separate the body which funds and promotes elite athletes from the body responsible for identifying cheats.

They feel the current location of the drug-free sport directorate within UK Sport leads to a "clear potential conflict of interest".

Shadow sports minister Lord Moynihan added: "The British sports foundation will bring together the best and most experienced administrators in British sport under one roof.
 
"A fit-for-purpose one-stop shop, lean, efficient and accountable, it will champion the voluntary sector on which sport in the United Kingdom is founded."

He added that the foundation would help to build capacity in British sports.

"It will reduce; restructure; revitalise and relaunch the framework for sport in the United Kingdom, ensuring that every man, woman and child receives the sporting opportunity which we believe to
be their right," he said.

"Although sport is not a business, like the London 2012 committee under the guidance of Lord Coe, it must be run on business principles."