Sport England, the government agency responsible for developing grassroots sports, has ordered an independent investigation into the distribution of £20m over a period of eight years.

Chair Richard Lewis has commissioned Tim Dutton QC to lead the probe into the 'World Class Payments Bureau', which made payments totalling £19.7m on behalf of sports' governing bodies with limited or no financial capabilities between 1999 and 2007. According to Sport England, the payments were made outside of its normal financial controls and had not been incorporated into the organisation's audited accounts during the period in question.

The investigation was ordered after Sport England chief executive Jennie Price first became aware of the Bureau bank account in late December 2008, which has remained unused since 2007 and has now been shut down. Lewis said: "It is concerning that a bank account operated outside the usual financial controls of Sport England. This fell short of the procedures and safeguards now in place in this organisation.

"This decision has been taken with the full support of the Department for Culture Media and Sport. The Dutton Investigation will be able to provide us with more detailed information on what happened, and help ensure that nothing like this occurs again." Dutton is expected to report back with the findings of the investigation in the autumn.