Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Grant and Eric Ollerenshaw

Thursday 3rd July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

5. What recent steps the Government have taken to encourage access for, and participation by, under-represented groups in (a) grass-roots and (b) professional sports.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (Mrs Helen Grant)]

Sport England and UK Sport are committed to achieving equality in grass-roots and elite sport. They invest in a range of expert bodies to work with sport to remove barriers to participation among under-represented groups.

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

Does my hon. Friend agree that we might achieve even more success in international sporting competitions if our sporting authorities had deeper contacts among ethnic minorities, and were able to use their expertise in what we might consider to be minority sports, but what in their countries of origin are majority sports?

[Mrs Grant]

My hon. Friend has made an interesting point. UK Sport and national governing bodies capitalise on a wealth of diverse global expertise in order to get athletes on to the podium. Sport England also invests in organisations such as Sporting Equals to promote physical activity and diversity in all sport.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Grant and Eric Ollerenshaw

Thursday 12th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Grant]

There is absolutely no green light for fixed-odds betting terminals. Their future will be kept under review pending further work, which has already started.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

T8. Following on from the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South (David Mowat) on arts disparities, may I raise a further complication? When the Arts Council for London, or the English Arts Council—London based—finds itself in the north-west it never usually goes much further than Manchester and Liverpool.