Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support councils in upgrading aging (a) swimming and (b) leisure facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people of all ages get active and provide vital facilities for children to learn to swim and about water safety. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure swimming facilities lies at local authority level. We are committed to supporting Local Government, recognising the significant financial challenges faced by the sector and by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
The Government encourages local authorities and local leaders to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities (including swimming pools) for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities. This is complemented by the support and guidance available through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England.
Sport England tracks usage of swimming pools through Moving Communities to understand usage, including by children and by a user’s home postcode, to build an evidence base on usage in areas of higher deprivation.
Sport England are closely monitoring swimming pool stock through their Active Places tool. This evidence shows that since 2015 there has been a total of 291 swimming pool closures (on sites owned by Local Authorities), whilst there have been a total of 254 new swimming pools opened during this period.
We will continue to engage with a full range of stakeholders to explore how we can work towards securing a vibrant future for swimming pools, enabling them to continue delivering their full potential for public health, economic growth, and the wellbeing of our communities.
All future funding of sports facilities beyond 2025/26 will be considered following the Spending Review and the Government will set out further plans in due course.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has considered making (a) swimming pool provision and (b) other leisure provision a statutory duty for local authorities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people of all ages get active and provide vital facilities for children to learn to swim and about water safety. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure swimming facilities lies at local authority level. We are committed to supporting Local Government, recognising the significant financial challenges faced by the sector and by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
The Government encourages local authorities and local leaders to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities (including swimming pools) for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities. This is complemented by the support and guidance available through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England.
Sport England tracks usage of swimming pools through Moving Communities to understand usage, including by children and by a user’s home postcode, to build an evidence base on usage in areas of higher deprivation.
Sport England are closely monitoring swimming pool stock through their Active Places tool. This evidence shows that since 2015 there has been a total of 291 swimming pool closures (on sites owned by Local Authorities), whilst there have been a total of 254 new swimming pools opened during this period.
We will continue to engage with a full range of stakeholders to explore how we can work towards securing a vibrant future for swimming pools, enabling them to continue delivering their full potential for public health, economic growth, and the wellbeing of our communities.
All future funding of sports facilities beyond 2025/26 will be considered following the Spending Review and the Government will set out further plans in due course.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help support councils to upgrade public swimming facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people of all ages get active and provide vital facilities for children to learn to swim and about water safety. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure swimming facilities lies at local authority level. We are committed to supporting Local Government, recognising the significant financial challenges faced by the sector and by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
The Government encourages local authorities and local leaders to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities (including swimming pools) for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities. This is complemented by the support and guidance available through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England.
Sport England tracks usage of swimming pools through Moving Communities to understand usage, including by children and by a user’s home postcode, to build an evidence base on usage in areas of higher deprivation.
Sport England are closely monitoring swimming pool stock through their Active Places tool. This evidence shows that since 2015 there has been a total of 291 swimming pool closures (on sites owned by Local Authorities), whilst there have been a total of 254 new swimming pools opened during this period.
We will continue to engage with a full range of stakeholders to explore how we can work towards securing a vibrant future for swimming pools, enabling them to continue delivering their full potential for public health, economic growth, and the wellbeing of our communities.
All future funding of sports facilities beyond 2025/26 will be considered following the Spending Review and the Government will set out further plans in due course.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps is she taking to increase access to affordable swimming lessons.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people of all ages get active and provide vital facilities for children to learn to swim and about water safety. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure swimming facilities lies at local authority level. We are committed to supporting Local Government, recognising the significant financial challenges faced by the sector and by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
The Government encourages local authorities and local leaders to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities (including swimming pools) for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities. This is complemented by the support and guidance available through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England.
Sport England tracks usage of swimming pools through Moving Communities to understand usage, including by children and by a user’s home postcode, to build an evidence base on usage in areas of higher deprivation.
Sport England are closely monitoring swimming pool stock through their Active Places tool. This evidence shows that since 2015 there has been a total of 291 swimming pool closures (on sites owned by Local Authorities), whilst there have been a total of 254 new swimming pools opened during this period.
We will continue to engage with a full range of stakeholders to explore how we can work towards securing a vibrant future for swimming pools, enabling them to continue delivering their full potential for public health, economic growth, and the wellbeing of our communities.
All future funding of sports facilities beyond 2025/26 will be considered following the Spending Review and the Government will set out further plans in due course.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
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 implications for her polices of trends in levels publicly-funded swimming pool closures since 2019.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.
Sport and physical activity, especially activities such as swimming, play a vital role in tackling the health challenges facing our nation through helping to treat and manage a wide range of health conditions. Swimming is not just a great way to get active, it is a fundamental life skill.
Sport England Active Places data evidences that since 2015 there has been a total of 291 swimming pool closures (on sites owned by Local Authorities), whilst there have been a total of 254 new swimming pools opened during this period.
We will continue to engage with Swim England, ukactive, and other key stakeholders to explore how we can work towards securing a vibrant future for swimming pools, enabling them to continue delivering their full potential for public health, economic growth, and the wellbeing of our communities.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure swimming facilities lies at local authority level. We are committed to supporting Local Government, recognising the significant financial challenges faced by the sector and by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
We do not have plans to set targets, as it is for local areas to determine what they need, but we believe that robust plans should be in place.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to introduce a national strategy for (a) community leisure provision and (b) swimming facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.
Sport and physical activity, especially activities such as swimming, play a vital role in tackling the health challenges facing our nation through helping to treat and manage a wide range of health conditions. Swimming is not just a great way to get active, it is a fundamental life skill.
Sport England Active Places data evidences that since 2015 there has been a total of 291 swimming pool closures (on sites owned by Local Authorities), whilst there have been a total of 254 new swimming pools opened during this period.
We will continue to engage with Swim England, ukactive, and other key stakeholders to explore how we can work towards securing a vibrant future for swimming pools, enabling them to continue delivering their full potential for public health, economic growth, and the wellbeing of our communities.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure swimming facilities lies at local authority level. We are committed to supporting Local Government, recognising the significant financial challenges faced by the sector and by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
We do not have plans to set targets, as it is for local areas to determine what they need, but we believe that robust plans should be in place.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to extend funding for (a) free and (b) subsidised swimming for children from low-income families.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Local Authorities are responsible for swimming provision, taking decisions locally in line with local strategies and contractual positions.
Pupils have the opportunity at primary school to learn to swim and be safe in and around water. The National Curriculum for Physical Education states that all schools must provide swimming instruction in either key stage 1 or 2 and that pupils should be taught to:
swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
use a range of strokes effectively (for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke)
perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations
Primary schools can use their PE and sport Premium funding to provide top-up swimming and water safety lessons for those pupils that do not meet national curriculum requirements after they have completed core swimming and water safety lessons.
The Government believes that opportunities to play sport and get physically active should be available to everyone and we recognise that there are barriers which prevent some people from getting active. We are committed to breaking down the barriers that contribute to these persisting inequalities in participation and want to ensure that everyone can experience the physical, mental and social benefits that come with being active.
As part of this, Sport England’s long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement, prioritises tackling these longstanding inequalities, focusing on providing more support and more investment targeted towards least active groups.
Sport England also track usage of swimming pools through Moving Communities to understand usage levels by children and by a user’s home postcode, to build an evidence base on usage in areas of higher deprivation.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
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 effectiveness of penalties for television licence evasion.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The BBC is responsible for collection and enforcement of the TV licence, including deciding whether to bring prosecution action.
The Secretary of State believes it is important that the television licence fee has a fair enforcement regime that does not disproportionately impact vulnerable people, and has discussed her concerns on this issue with the BBC’s leadership.
As part of the next Charter Review, the Government will engage with the BBC and others to consider how to ensure the BBC thrives well into the next decade and beyond. This will include discussions on a range of important issues, including future funding models for the BBC, and their enforcement.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional funding to the voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations for (a) reducing their energy consumption and (b) other costs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme (EES) is a £25.53 million grant programme, set up under the previous government and delivered in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to increase the energy efficiency and long-term sustainability of frontline VCSE organisations.
There is no plan to continue the EES beyond this financial year. However there are a number of other ways in which the government supports VCSEs with their financial sustainability. This includes delivering other grant programmes, growing other sources of funding such as the social investment market, and supporting the viability of central and local government contracts. The government will also shortly set out how it intends to allocate the £350 million expected to flow into the Dormant Assets Scheme in England between 2024 and 2028 to the named causes - youth, financial inclusion, social investment, and community wealth funds.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding he plans to provide to the voluntary, community, and social enterprise energy efficiency scheme in 2025.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme (EES) is a £25.53 million grant programme, set up under the previous government and delivered in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to increase the energy efficiency and long-term sustainability of frontline VCSE organisations.
There is no plan to continue the EES beyond this financial year. However there are a number of other ways in which the government supports VCSEs with their financial sustainability. This includes delivering other grant programmes, growing other sources of funding such as the social investment market, and supporting the viability of central and local government contracts. The government will also shortly set out how it intends to allocate the £350 million expected to flow into the Dormant Assets Scheme in England between 2024 and 2028 to the named causes - youth, financial inclusion, social investment, and community wealth funds.