Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities (a) directly manage the maintenance of playing pitches and (b) indirectly manage the maintenance of such pitches by using a third party service provider; and if he will make a statement.

Active Places records are maintained via a combination of a third party Sport England contractor (Adetiq) to collect, validate and maintain sport facility data in addition to individual facility owners and managers who self-maintain information on their own facility records. Changes to the database occur on a daily basis due to a rolling cycle of each record being audited on an annual basis, user feedback, targeted quality assurance checks and new data research projects. For more information see https://www.activeplacespower.com/faqs/all.

We are keen to ensure that sports facilities owned by schools and colleges are used as effectively as possible and are available to a broad range of community sports groups. That is why we have ensured that the school Governance Handbook highlights Sport England's publication 'Use Our School', which provides guidance to schools on how to maximise the use of their facilities.