It emerged today that Northern Ireland, Scottish and Welsh firms have not been getting a fair share of London Olympic contracts.

Stormont Junior Minister and East Belfast DUP MLA Robin Newton (pictured) said the London Olympic Games presents an excellent opportunity for local firms to gain business advantage.

"It is disappointing that the number of local firms that have secured business is low.

"I would encourage those that have not yet attempted to secure Olympic-type business business to go for it.

"This is a gold medal opportunity that will not come again for many, many years," he urged.

His comments follow a parliamentary question which revealed that just 17 Scottish firms had received Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) contracts – in contrast to 1,022 English firms.

Wales received four contracts and Northern Ireland just three, while as many contracts went overseas as came to Scotland.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) spokesperson on the Olympics, Pete Wishart MP, said the figures raised serious questions over whether contracts had been marketed fairly across the UK to deliver benefits for all.

Mr Wishart said: "It seems clear from these disappointing figures that Scottish companies are an afterthought when lucrative Olympic contracts are being awarded.

"The imbalance in where these contracts are going raises real questions on whether they are being marketed fairly across the UK to deliver benefits for all.

"It is a double whammy for Scotland because we are already missing out on any consequentials from the massive spending regenerating London's East End for the Olympics whilst Downing Street deny the same funding to the Scottish Government for Glasgow which will host the Commonwealth Games.

The Scottish Government are funding 80% of the Games' costs, with Glasgow Council funding 20%.

"Spending by the UK Government on regeneration around the London Olympics should generate £165m - £33m per annum over the five years to 2012-13 - for Scotland under the Barnett formula.

"The expenditure is on areas such as regeneration and there is a strong case argued by all three devolved administrations that this spending should rightly be subject to the Barnett formula in the normal way," he concluded.

(CD/BMcC)