Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to allocate specific funding from the public purse to female grassroots football teams.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I am committed to encouraging more women and girls to get active and helping women’s sport come out of the current crisis stronger than ever. Over the last year I have met with a range of sports organisations to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on women’s sport and how together we can address these challenges going forward. I have made clear in these discussions that I expect women’s sport to be protected through the pandemic and prioritised as we emerge on the other side.
Through our national sports council, Sport England, the government is investing £24.6m in The Football Association over the course of 2016-21 for its work on grassroots participation, the football talent pathway, and coaching programmes. Within this, there is no specific ring-fencing of funding between men's and women's programmes, apart from £2.6m which is specifically reserved for women and girls talent programmes.
Sport England has also awarded The FA £1m to date to deliver The FA FIVES national promotion programme, a mass participation five a side football competition linked to EURO 2021 & EURO 2022. Its aim is to provide opportunities throughout England for men and women to take part in a fun, friendly football event. In addition, they have awarded £987,000 towards the Women’s Euro 2022 Host City Legacy Impact intended to increase activity levels in football amongst women aged 16+.
Sport England has also provided £220m directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, via a range of funds including their £35m Community Emergency Fund. £2.25m of this funding has been awarded to the FA to support a safe restart of football. This funding will prioritise groups most impacted by Covid-19, including Women’s National League. This sector support was recently boosted by an extra £50m to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations as part of Sport England’s new strategy Uniting the Movement.
On 19 February, it was announced that women’s sport would also receive multi-million pound support through the Sport Winter Survival Package including £2.25m for the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of reopening bowling alleys alongside non-essential retail and leisure businesses after the national covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021 ends.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Prime Minister outlined the roadmap for reopening in England on 22 February 2021.
Step 3 of the roadmap will take place no earlier than 17 May, and at least 5 weeks after Step 2. Sectors which can reopen in Step 3 include indoor entertainment such as bowling alleys. COVID-Secure guidance will remain in place and premises must not cater for groups larger than the legal limits.
DCMS officials continue to engage with representatives of the Ten-Pin Bowling Proprietor’s Association, along with several other visitor economy stakeholders through the Tourism Industry Council, to assess how we can most effectively support the sector’s reopening.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to encourage gym usage once public health restrictions are lifted.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we have made sure that people can exercise throughout the national and local tiered restrictions. We will continue to promote exercise throughout the pandemic and encourage the usage of sports facilities including gyms when they are able to open again.
Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. On top of wider economic support, the Government has announced a £100m support fund for local authority leisure centres to ensure these important facilities remain available once public health restrictions are lifted.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether fishing clubs located on private land can continue to operate under Tier 3 of the public health restrictions which come into effect on 2 December 2020.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we made sure that people could exercise at least once a day even during the height of the first period of enhanced national restrictions and why we opened up grassroots sport and leisure facilities as soon as it was safe to do so.
Organised outdoor sport is exempt from legal gathering limits across all levels. This means that organised outdoor team sport and outdoor exercise classes, as well as outdoor licensed physical activity, can happen with any number of participants, as long as undertaken in line with published COVID-secure guidance. This includes fishing clubs located on private land.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of permitting indoor one-to-one golf tuition under the covid-19 public health restrictions introduced on 2 December 2020 in England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As the Prime Minister said on 23 November national restrictions ended on Wednesday 2 December, and gyms and sport facilities including golf courses are able to reopen across all tiers. One to one golf tuition indoors can take place across all tiers as long as strict social distancing is observed.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the Youth Investment Fund is planned to be awarded to (a) Barnsley Central constituency, (b) Sheffield City Region and (c) Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by John Whittingdale
In the recently announced Spending Review £30m of the Youth Investment Fund was committed as capital investment for 2021-22. This will provide a transformational investment in new and refurbished safe spaces for young people, so they can access support youth workers, and positive activities out of school, including sport and culture. Further details on the plans for distribution will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using a similar initiative to Kick it Out to tackle racism in cricket.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Racism or any form of discrimination has no place in cricket or wider society.Organisations such as Kick It Out play an important role in helping to tackle discrimination in local, national and international sport. It is ultimately for individual sports to decide on the appropriate initiatives for their circumstances.
The Government welcomes the steps taken by the English Cricket Board (ECB) in recent years to increase diversity in cricket, including the announcement in July this year around strengthening its Inclusion and Diversity Strategy.
There is still more to do, however, and we will continue to liaise with the ECB to ensure this issue is tackled effectively.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of (a) structural and (b) institutional racism in professional cricket.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Racism or any form of discrimination has no place in cricket or wider society.Organisations such as Kick It Out play an important role in helping to tackle discrimination in local, national and international sport. It is ultimately for individual sports to decide on the appropriate initiatives for their circumstances.
The Government welcomes the steps taken by the English Cricket Board (ECB) in recent years to increase diversity in cricket, including the announcement in July this year around strengthening its Inclusion and Diversity Strategy.
There is still more to do, however, and we will continue to liaise with the ECB to ensure this issue is tackled effectively.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when Sport England plans to publish the findings of the joint review of code for sports governance.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sport England and UK Sport began their joint review of the Code for Sports Governance in July 2020. Their aim is to publish the initial findings of the review in early 2021.