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 impact of Multi-Sports Grassroots Facilities programme projects 2023-24 on the (a) engagement and (b) participation of women and girls in sport.

Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health and this government is committed to ensuring that everyone is able to play sport and be active, including women and girls.

As part of our more than £300 million investment in multi-sport grassroots facilities, our delivery partners assess all potential projects against their ability to deliver increased participation of under-represented groups - including women and girls, ethnic minority communities and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Any project receiving over £25,000 in England must also have an equal access women and girls plan in place.

The Government also recently announced £25 million for the Lionesses Futures Fund - topped up with £5 million additional investment from the FA - specifically to deliver up to 30 state of the art 3G artificial pitches across the country with gold-standard provision for women and girls. Reserved peak-time slots, women and girls only evenings and priority booking for women and girls’ teams will be used to drive up opportunities to get into sport. There will also be dedicated women’s changing rooms and shower facilities and accessible toilets.

We are conducting a programme wide impact evaluation. This will measure the extent to which the programme has delivered increases in participation among women and girls so that these interventions can be applied more widely if successful.