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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what financial support his Department has allocated to providers of (a) arts and (b) sports training for children and young people during the covid-19 outbreak.

Government recognises the significant impact of Covid-19 on young people, particularly the most vulnerable, and on the youth services that support them. A £16.5m Youth Covid-19 Support Fund has been announced which will protect the immediate future of grassroots and national youth organisations across the country.

The funding will be allocated from the Government’s unprecedented £750 million package of support which is benefiting tens of thousands of frontline charities, so they can continue their vital work. More than £60 million of this package has already been provided to organisations working with vulnerable children and young people. In addition, we have allocated over £800m from the Culture Recovery Fund to almost 3,800 cultural organisations and sites in England, including organisations that focus on arts provision for children and young people.

The Youth Investment Fund remains a manifesto commitment for transformative levelling up across the country over the course of the parliament. In the recent announced Spending Review £30m of this was committed as capital investment for 2021-22. This will provide a transformational investment in new and refurbished safe spaces for young people, so they can access support youth workers, and positive activities out of school, including sport and culture. Further details of the timetable for allocation will be announced in due course.

Separately, Sport England have invested £194m into children and young people since 2016, including £40M over four years for the Families Fund; £11M each year on School Games, supported by a further £7M from DHSC; £34M over four years to the Satellite Club program; and £13.5M over four years on Teacher training.