Sport, Health and Well-being National Plan (NPSRC Report)

Lord Bassam of Brighton Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2023 Grand Committee

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

My Lords, this has been a wonderful debate—one of the best I have heard in the Grand Committee Room, and, indeed, in the House, in some time. I had not realised I was living among so many sporting greats until I heard the effusion of speeches this afternoon. We genuinely owe the noble Lord, Lord Willis of Knaresborough, a great debt of gratitude: he has done a brilliant job in pulling this excellent report together. The recommendations speak for themselves and make a cogent and coherent case.

I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, on how he kicked off the debate. He did the noble Lord, Lord Willis, justice and made a powerful, and pretty much unarguable, case for a national plan for sport. I also acknowledge and thank the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, for his brilliant maiden speech this afternoon and his contribution to our debate. When he started talking about the defeat of the Spanish, I thought he meant a fixture that I had missed in an earlier iteration of the sport I love most, which is football. The noble Earl went on to address other subjects as well, and, if he does that as he did today, the House will greatly benefit from his input and wisdom.

I made notes about comments that colleagues made in the debate, and some points stood out for me in particular. The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, made a great plea for a national plan, and he pointed out the widening gap between elite performance in sport and the general participation of our population. He mentioned the recommendations being useful in addressing that, and described the plan as a “vibrant” manifesto for parties to consider at the next general election. That is right: sport should be very much at the forefront of our thinking for that.

My noble friend Lady Morris said that we needed an argument, a row, a national debate. She was right. The point about physical literacy is terribly important, and we should have it firmly in our minds.

The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, made the powerful point, repeating an argument that has been put many times before, that sport has the power to change the world. That is absolutely right; we should just look at the way in which it transforms lives in our communities up and down the country now. Worryingly, she pointed out that 34% of councils are likely to close their swimming pools in the next period. That is a frightening statistic. As someone who played a major role in local government for many years—I do not know about others in the Room today—I have seen the decline of our sporting facilities over that period, as less and less money has been invested as budgets are squeezed.

I liked the reference made by the noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, to the potential for sport to widen the participation of different communities. She referred in particular to the Bangladeshi community and the joy that she discovered in sport as she grew up.

The noble Lord, Lord Holmes, nailed it when he talked about a “leisure centre emergency”. These are powerful expressions that we should not lose sight of. My noble friend Lord Knight talked about the core problem of inactivity. As ever, he was absolutely right.

The noble Lord, Lord Naseby, was our primary doubter. He did not like the idea of a national plan. I suspect that goes to the core of his political thinking, but even he admitted that we needed a UK plan and personally I do not really see much of a difference. However, it is important that we understand where sceptics are coming from because, if we do not, we will not make the coherent argument that we need to deliver on a national plan.

I also enjoyed the reflections of the noble Baroness, Lady Sater, and her challenge for others to get involved in the game of tennis. I am probably past my best in that sport, but I still enjoy a game of cricket and intend this summer to return to that game in my 70th year.

[Noble Lords]

Hear, hear!

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

Well, if you had been there in my 30th year, you would have been among those whom I bowled out regularly.

This has been a very important debate for all of us join together in. The report notes high levels of inactivity among certain societal groups—it has been a problem for many decades, and we need to grasp it—leading not only to those health issues that we have concerns about but to social and community cohesion being the poorer for it.

The last Labour Government took a number of positive steps to get children and other groups more interested in sport and physical activity, but that momentum has been lost over the past 13 years. If that sounds like a party-political point, it probably is, but it is to do with the way in which our current Government have failed to build on some of the legacy opportunities, in particular the London 2012 legacy, which was a missed opportunity.

As I said earlier, the cuts to local authority and public health funding, as well as changes to the national curriculum and the expansion of academies and free schools, have left a patchwork of provision of sports clubs and facilities across the country.

We know that cuts to public health budgets have disproportionately hit groups who were already less physically active, which is why the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is a very good idea, even if there are issues around its operation. In December, the House debated a Private Member’s Bill in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Addington, which sought to enact one of the key recommendations of the Select Committee: that is, that the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities be renamed the Office for Health Promotion. That is an important point, but to put it on a statutory footing is important too.

In his response to that debate, the noble Lord, Lord Markham, made a series of commitments, including that the Government would publish various updated strategies in the first quarter of this year, rather than 2022 as was originally intended. The Government claim that cross-departmental working in this area is functioning well, so in that spirit can the Minister confirm the status of those documents? Has he been personally involved in the processes? Can he update us on where those documents have got to and what the Government intend to do to bring forward some form of national strategy?

In their response to this report, the Government cite various pots of money for new football pitches and school sports facilities and a commitment to renovate existing park tennis courts. Can the Minister confirm how many facilities have actually been built or renovated since the announcements were made? I would very much like to know where they are and what improvements have been seen.

We are glad that the Government agree with the committee’s views on the importance of public messaging campaigns such as “This Girl Can”. This arguably runs contrary to other areas of policy where the Government seem to put too little resource into raising public awareness. Let us hope that it is different for sport. Can the Minister go into more detail on Sport England’s upcoming campaigns and comment on whether DCMS and the Department of Health and Social Care have assessed the potential benefits of broader public information campaigns on some of these issues?

I cannot let this debate pass without expressing thanks to community groups, sports clubs and amateur coaches across the country. They do so much to involve and inspire others, even if they do not always feel supported in that work. At least this group of Members can express their support and encouragement for their efforts.

The social and health benefits that could be derived from improving participation in sports and physical activity are huge, as a number of noble Lords have said. We owe it to those who run initiatives across the country to try to realise the benefits sooner rather than later, as we will otherwise face a health emergency. As the report points out, and as I think the Minister would acknowledge, making meaningful progress will take concerted action across Whitehall. Now that the Prime Minister has rejigged departments, are the Government confident that they can deliver?

I will spend a few moments reflecting on the decline at a non-elite level of one of our great sports, which the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, referred to: cricket. When I was a schoolboy, cricket was played in schools. Schools had cricket pitches which were well looked after. We played our rival schools in the summer games. For me, there were only two seasons in the year, not four—cricket and football. They were really important for us, growing up as we did. Cricket in state schools is pretty much non-existent unless you happen to be the beneficiary of something like Rod Aldridge’s sports academy, which focuses on cricket in the city where I live. That is a terrible gap. Cricket is a great game, not just because it is physical activity but because it takes you into the worlds of literature and maths—it is three or four disciplines all in one game of participation. However, there is little concern or interest from the Government in making that sport part of the regular day-to-day activity of the school curriculum.

Excellence at elite-level rugby league, rugby, football and cricket is a bonus to us. Winning more medals at the Olympics and the Lionesses winning the Euro championship are wonderful moments for national celebration, but they do not of themselves encourage wider sporting participation. The committee’s report goes a long way to addressing the steps we need to take to ensure that that ceases to be the case in future and, as the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, said, becomes our manifesto—and a vibrant one, at that.