Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Sporting Future: A Strategy for an Active Nation, published in December 2015, what progress the Inter-Ministerial Group for Healthy Living has made on implementing a joined-up approach to delivery and funding for sport and physical activity.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I meet regularly with my ministerial colleagues to discuss our joint working on sport and physical activity. Cross-government working continues to be a key priority, given the immense role sport and physical activity plays in a range of important agendas across government. For example, it can help improve learning and educational attainment, and contribute to reducing the burden on health and social care services.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate the Government has made of the number of children sexually abused by sports coaches in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My department does not collect information about the prevalence of child sexual abuse in sport. Child sexual abuse investigations and statistics are managed by the police.
The latest figures from Operation Hydrant, which coordinates non-recent child sexual abuse and exploitation investigations concerning institutional settings, show 329 sport institutions as being on the Operation Hydrant database up to and including 30 September 2018.
Operation Hydrant has also published separate statistics relating to non-recent child sexual abuse in football, up to and including 29 March 2018. These show that, at the time of publication, there were 849 alleged victims and 300 alleged suspects of non-recent child sexual abuse in football. These figures do not show in which years the alleged abuse took place, nor the relationship between the alleged perpetrator and victim. Since March 2018, football-related statistics have been captured in the Operation’s broader quarterly statistics.
Ensuring that sport is a safe environment for all young people is one of my top priorities, and my department works closely with Sport England and the Child Protection in Sport Unit to strengthen provision wherever possible. To support these efforts, I am committed to working closely with the Ministry of Justice to extend the definition of a ‘position of trust’ in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to include sports coaches who hold a position of trust in relation to a child aged 16 or 17 under their care.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on the number of victims of child sexual abuse by sports coaches that have come forward in the last five years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My department does not collect information about the prevalence of child sexual abuse in sport. Child sexual abuse investigations and statistics are managed by the police.
The latest figures from Operation Hydrant, which coordinates non-recent child sexual abuse and exploitation investigations concerning institutional settings, show 329 sport institutions as being on the Operation Hydrant database up to and including 30 September 2018.
Operation Hydrant has also published separate statistics relating to non-recent child sexual abuse in football, up to and including 29 March 2018. These show that, at the time of publication, there were 849 alleged victims and 300 alleged suspects of non-recent child sexual abuse in football. These figures do not show in which years the alleged abuse took place, nor the relationship between the alleged perpetrator and victim. Since March 2018, football-related statistics have been captured in the Operation’s broader quarterly statistics.
Ensuring that sport is a safe environment for all young people is one of my top priorities, and my department works closely with Sport England and the Child Protection in Sport Unit to strengthen provision wherever possible. To support these efforts, I am committed to working closely with the Ministry of Justice to extend the definition of a ‘position of trust’ in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to include sports coaches who hold a position of trust in relation to a child aged 16 or 17 under their care.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will increase the resources provided to UK Anti-Doping.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is an Arm's Length Body of DCMS and acts as the UK's National Anti-Doping Organisation. A Tailored Review of UKAD has been conducted with a report being published last year making a number of recommendations. As part of this process, the Government awarded an additional £6.1m funding to UKAD over two years which consolidates its position as one of the best resourced National Anti-Doping Organisations in the world.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings (a) he and (b) his Ministers have had with Kick It Out in the last five years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DCMS Ministers and officials meet a number of stakeholders in sport on a regular basis.
‘Kick it Out’ has been a powerful voice working within football to tackle all forms of discrimination for the last 25 years. They were among the key attendees to a homophobia in sport roundtable event DCMS hosted in 2018, and DCMS and the Home Office partnered with the organisation and the Premier League to launch at that event new guidance to help football club safety officers and stewards deal with homophobic, biphobic and transphobic abuse, as well as a short film to raise awareness of gay and transsexual inclusion in football. The Kick it Out app remains the most-used reporting mechanism relating to incidents of discrimination within football.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to reduce homophobia in sport.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is no place for homophobia in sport. Sports must come together to tackle homophobia and discrimination of any kind, and ensure that sport is at the forefront of equality.
Sports, from grassroots to elite, should continue to work with organisations such as Stonewall, Pride Sport and Kick It Out to make sport more inclusive. In 2017 government worked in partnership with Kick It Out to issue guidance to stewards on tackling homophobia in sport.
The cross-government sport strategy ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ seeks to ensure that access to sport is equal for all and that everyone can enjoy taking part. Sport England, our national sport council, will soon be releasing new LGBT insight, which will explore the barriers and motivations around participation, as well as a LGBT sport infrastructure review report.