Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Grassroots Sport

Thursday 27 April 2023 · 5 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 3 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Sport England received nearly 350 million last year to fund grassroots sports projects.
  • The government is supporting community participation with over 300 million for multi-sport facilities from 2021 to 2025.
  • The Department is monitoring financial situations across the football pyramid to address club troubles.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Esther McVey Con Tatton
Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The MP asked about the government's efforts to support local sports projects.

Question

What steps her Department is taking to support grassroots sport?

Answer from Stuart Andrew

Supporting grassroots sport is a key priority for the Government. Last year, Sport England received almost £350 million to fund grassroots sports projects. We are also supporting community participation, with more than £300 million between 2021 and 2025 to deliver up to 8,000 multi-sport facilities in communities across the UK.

Answered
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Q2 Nicola Richards
Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The MP thanked the Minister for supporting a campaign to confront the ownership issue at West Bromwich Albion.

Question

I thank my right hon. Friend for the support he has provided to the campaign to confront the ownership of West Bromwich Albion, working with Andy Street and supporters groups. We have seen the huge step of the release of the football governance White Paper. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that he will continue to monitor the situation at clubs such as West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham City, and ensure that the new regulator will have the ability to take action to protect the clubs that support grassroots sport in the west midlands?

Answer from Stuart Andrew

May I praise my hon. Friend and her colleagues for the tremendous amount of work she has done in standing up for the fans of the clubs she has worked with so closely? Frankly, too many clubs face financial troubles, and we continue to monitor situations across the football pyramid. We have set out the reforms that will protect football clubs so that they can meet their day-to-day liabilities and preserve the clubs for the future. That will include sanctions, where necessary. We will introduce new owners' and directors' tests, including a fitness and propriety test and enhanced due diligence of owners' sources of wealth, and we will require owners to demonstrate robust financial plans to provide people like her constituents with the assurances they need.

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Q3 Esther McVey Con Tatton
Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The MP inquired about how to support organisations running similar events without local council backing.

Question

In Wilmslow in my Tatton constituency, we have a football academy run by Erik Garner, which will be putting on a girls' world cup for primary age children this summer. That is possible only because town councillors stood in to give funding to ensure the maximum number of girls can participate. Given that women's football is still growing, will the Minister explain how organisations that do not have parish and town councils that can step in can access financial support from the Football Association for similar events, to help to inspire the next generation of Lionesses?

Answer from Stuart Andrew

I congratulate my right hon. Friend's constituent for the work he is doing. We are all proud of the Lionesses' success and the inspiration it has given. The majority of funding for grassroots sport is delivered through Sport England. We invested £21 million in 2021-22 and £46 million in 2022-23 in grassroots sports facilities in England. We suggest that organisations hoping to run similar events contact Sport England or the FA, and many community groups that do not have parish councils do so. We are also carrying out an in-depth review of women's football, chaired by former Lioness Karen Carney, which will report this summer.

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Q4 Clive Efford Lab Eltham and Chislehurst
Community Security Energy
Context

The MP raised concerns about the threat to local swimming facilities due to high energy costs.

Question

Over the years, many hundreds of thousands of children up and down the country have learned to swim in their local swimming pool, and the clubs that provide those facilities are quite often very grassroots and local. However, our local swimming baths are under threat. The energy they consume is enormous and they are extremely expensive to run. The £63 million announced in the Budget is welcome, but we have yet to see the detail of how that money will be rolled out. Can the Minister tell us when it will be rolled out and when we will know the criteria?

Answer from Stuart Andrew

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising this important issue. I have spent a lot of time listening to local organisations making the exact same points. That is why, as a Department, we lobbied the Treasury heavily to get that £63 million. That will not only help with the current issue of the costs swimming pools are facing, but address some of the long-term issues to make them more sustainable. We are working through the detail and will make an announcement in due course.

Partly answered

Not addressed: specific timeline for roll-out and criteria details were not provided

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Q5 Derek Twigg Lab Widnes and Halewood
Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The MP inquired about the Government's strategy for ensuring continued sports participation after school.

Question

A key element in ensuring the success of grassroots sport is having a good pool of talent and enough participants. However, one problem is that a number of young people, once they leave school, do not continue participating in either team sport or individual sport. What is the Government's strategy to ensure that as many young people as possible continue to do some sort of sporting activity when they leave school?

Answer from Stuart Andrew

Again, the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise that issue. Participation in sport and physical activity is a key piece of work that we are looking at. It is good to see that it has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but we need to go even further. We are working on the sports strategy, which will address some of the issues he has raised, and I hope to make an announcement on that in due course.

Partly answered

Not addressed: specific details or timeline for the sports strategy were not provided

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