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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to encourage participation in archery.

The latest Sport England Active Lives data shows that 585,100 adults (16+) participated in archery in the last year from Mid-Nov 2019 to Mid-Nov 2020. The Chief Medical Officer is clear that being physically active is important to long-term health and crucial for keeping people healthy. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport is at the front of the queue when easing those restrictions.

On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. Organised outdoor and indoor sport including archery has now resumed.

Since 2017/18 Sport England have made 265 awards to archery projects totalling £8,744,328. The Government has also provided unprecedented support to the sport sector to ensure these facilities are able to open. Sport England are also providing £270 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund. Beyond elite level sport, £100 million of funding has now been provided to support local authority leisure centre