Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of playing home games at alternative venues on non-league football clubs.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Maintenance of grass football pitches is the responsibility of individual clubs in conjunction with the FA. Clubs that play at Step 1 to 6 of the National League System and Tiers 1 to 4 of the Women’s Football Pyramid are eligible to apply for grants through the Premier League Stadium Fund in order to make improvements to their grounds. Administration of the grants is managed by the Football Foundation.
Government is also delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK. This includes £327 million to provide up to 8,000 new and improved multi-sport grassroots facilities and pitches across the whole of the UK between 2021 and 2025.
The Government recognises the logistical difficulties posed by weather-related postponements, and the consequent fixture congestion caused. This is exacerbated for clubs that have been forced to play their home fixtures at an alternative venue where the surface at their home ground is unplayable. However, the decision of whether or not to extend a football season is one that must be made by the FA as national governing body of the sport.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the impact of the state of grass pitches maintained by local authorities on junior football.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Maintenance of grass football pitches is the responsibility of individual clubs in conjunction with the FA. Clubs that play at Step 1 to 6 of the National League System and Tiers 1 to 4 of the Women’s Football Pyramid are eligible to apply for grants through the Premier League Stadium Fund in order to make improvements to their grounds. Administration of the grants is managed by the Football Foundation.
Government is also delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK. This includes £327 million to provide up to 8,000 new and improved multi-sport grassroots facilities and pitches across the whole of the UK between 2021 and 2025.
The Government recognises the logistical difficulties posed by weather-related postponements, and the consequent fixture congestion caused. This is exacerbated for clubs that have been forced to play their home fixtures at an alternative venue where the surface at their home ground is unplayable. However, the decision of whether or not to extend a football season is one that must be made by the FA as national governing body of the sport.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Football Association on an extension to the football season for junior sides.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Maintenance of grass football pitches is the responsibility of individual clubs in conjunction with the FA. Clubs that play at Step 1 to 6 of the National League System and Tiers 1 to 4 of the Women’s Football Pyramid are eligible to apply for grants through the Premier League Stadium Fund in order to make improvements to their grounds. Administration of the grants is managed by the Football Foundation.
Government is also delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK. This includes £327 million to provide up to 8,000 new and improved multi-sport grassroots facilities and pitches across the whole of the UK between 2021 and 2025.
The Government recognises the logistical difficulties posed by weather-related postponements, and the consequent fixture congestion caused. This is exacerbated for clubs that have been forced to play their home fixtures at an alternative venue where the surface at their home ground is unplayable. However, the decision of whether or not to extend a football season is one that must be made by the FA as national governing body of the sport.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with local councils on the maintenance of grass pitches.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Maintenance of grass football pitches is the responsibility of individual clubs in conjunction with the FA. Clubs that play at Step 1 to 6 of the National League System and Tiers 1 to 4 of the Women’s Football Pyramid are eligible to apply for grants through the Premier League Stadium Fund in order to make improvements to their grounds. Administration of the grants is managed by the Football Foundation.
Government is also delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK. This includes £327 million to provide up to 8,000 new and improved multi-sport grassroots facilities and pitches across the whole of the UK between 2021 and 2025.
The Government recognises the logistical difficulties posed by weather-related postponements, and the consequent fixture congestion caused. This is exacerbated for clubs that have been forced to play their home fixtures at an alternative venue where the surface at their home ground is unplayable. However, the decision of whether or not to extend a football season is one that must be made by the FA as national governing body of the sport.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with the Football Association on increasing funding for third and fourth generation playing surfaces.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to delivering top class sports facilities across the country, so that everyone can take part in sport and physical activity. As part of this commitment, the Government is delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots sport facilities across the UK.
Between 2021 and 2025, the UK Government is delivering investment of over £400 million to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK. The largest component of this funding is the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, which is investing over £320 million in, among other things, new third generation playing surfaces.
Government recognises the importance of levelling up grassroots facilities across the country and as part of the delivery of the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, we are analysing the need for future funding and how this will be delivered, taking into account the upcoming Spending Review.
Government has been clear that the Football Association plays an integral role in the funding of grassroots facilities, and investment in both 3G and grass pitches remains a key priority. Government will continue to work with the Football Association to encourage future investment into facilities through the Football Foundation.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to help increase access to grassroots football in deprived areas.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to delivering top class sports facilities across the country, so that everyone can take part in sport and physical activity. As part of this commitment, the Government is delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots sport facilities across the UK.
Between 2021 and 2025, the UK Government is delivering investment of over £400 million to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK. The largest component of this funding is the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, which is investing over £320 million between 2021 and 2025 into football and multi-sport pitches, changing rooms and other ancillary facilities. Through this programme over £56,000 has been awarded to Northumberland County Council to improve grass pitches on Morpeth Common.
Central to this investment is a clear objective to level up access for under-represented groups through investment in deprived areas and an emphasis on equal access. 50% of funding will go to the 40% most deprived local authority areas, based on a combined inactivity and deprivation ranking.
All projects are assessed against their ability to deliver increased participation by under-represented groups - including women and girls, ethnic minority communities and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. All projects can be viewed here on gov.uk.
In addition to facilities funding, in November 2023 Sport England announced £250 million of funding that will provide a major expansion of their investment into local communities across England to ensure those in greatest need are able to be physically active.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the future of the Universal Service Obligation for broadband.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The broadband Universal service Obligation (USO) was launched in March 2020 and acts as a ‘digital safety net’ providing every premises with the legal right to request a decent broadband service providing speeds of at least 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload.
As the independent regulator, it is the responsibility of Ofcom to administer and monitor the broadband USO and ensure that the two Universal Service Providers comply with the obligations placed on them.
As set out in the Communications Act 2003, the Secretary of State must give Ofcom a direction to review the broadband USO once at least 75% of premises in the United Kingdom, on the basis of Ofcom’s data, take up a broadband service with a download speed of at least 30 megabits per second. As of September 2021 Ofcom reported that 69% of premises in the UK had taken up a superfast broadband service.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of mental health and wellbeing training requirements for qualified sports coaches.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government recognises the importance of welfare and mental wellbeing for people participating in sport at all levels. An inclusive and professional sport and physical activity workforce is key to supporting people to be active. We want people taking part in sport and physical activity to have the best possible experience, which means that the workforce must be recruited, developed and supported in the right way.
Sport England, our arm’s length body for grassroots sport in England, funds a number of projects which aim to address knowledge and skills gaps of coaches in areas such as mental health. In 2019 they launched an e-learning course developed alongside Mind, UK Coaching and 1st4Sport which aims to help coaches and sport and physical activity providers increase their knowledge of mental health including how to support and engage people experiencing mental health problems. In 2020 Sport England also launched a duty of care toolkit with UK Coaching to equip coaches with the knowledge and skills to provide better coaching experiences and better look after themselves.
In recent years UK Sport, DCMS's arm's length body for elite sport, and the English Institute for Sport also have launched a programme of mental health education to promote positive mental health amongst coaches and support staff and encourage them to develop self-care strategies.
We will continue to work with our arm’s length bodies, sports bodies, and sector partners to promote good coaching which benefits both participants and coaches.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether adult gaming centres are non-essential retail as classified in the Government’s Shops Guidance; and if he will bring forward legislative proposals to enable those centres to reopen with other non-essential retail when covid-19 lockdown restrictions are lifted.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government has published guidance to help businesses understand how to make workplaces Covid-secure and help tackle the spread of the virus. Adult Gaming Centres should follow the shops and branches guidance in addition to Bacta’s specific guidance for FECs and AGCs to ensure they can operate as safely as possible when they are open.
The shops and branches workplace guidance was intended as guidance for those businesses on how they could operate safely when the regulations permitted them to do so after the first national lockdown and beyond. It does not have a direct bearing on the timing for reopening of the businesses included in the guidance.
As announced by the Prime Minister, we intend to publish our plan for taking the country out of lockdown in the last week of February. That plan will depend on the continued success of our vaccination programme, and on a sustained reduction in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations.