Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what information her Department holds on trends in number of volunteer sports coaches supporting youth sports clubs in the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

The table below provides information taken from Sport England's Active People Survey for the period October 2011 to October 2016. It shows the percentage of adults who volunteered in a coaching role. It should be noted this includes all volunteer sports coaches and not just those volunteering in sports club or, more specifically, a youth sports club.

Since 2016 people's engagement in sport and physical activity has been measured via the Active Lives Survey. This provides a broader and more nuanced set of data on the different types of physical activity that people take part in, including for the first time ever, activities such walking and types of dance. It now also captures information about sports volunteering.

The Government’s sport strategy ‘Sporting Future’ published in December 2015 takes a new approach to volunteering. It recognises the value to volunteers themselves as well as to sports and the importance of recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers who are representative of the entire population. Sport England launched their new Volunteering strategy on 1st December 2016 and is investing over £20 million over 4 years (2017 - 21) to support its implementation. The strategy aims to allow more people to engage in all types of volunteering through sport and physical activity. It also seeks to ensure better quality, meaningful volunteering experiences.