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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many local authority leisure centres closed in each year since 1997.

Data held by Sport England is only fully available from 2010, when the Active Places database was fully established. Data is stored by facility type (e.g. pool, health and fitness gym, or sports hall) rather than “leisure centre.”

From 2010, approximately 414 local authority owned sites which have one or more pools, main halls or health & fitness gyms, closed either fully or partially (where a facility within the site, e.g. a pool or gym may have closed). At the same time, new facilities were constructed at 434 comparable sites. This indicates a net increase in facilities in the period between 2010 and present.

It is important to consider these numbers in the context of facility provision within the local area. Facilities may close for a number of reasons, this can include the rationalisation of multiple older facilities into a modern, better located facility.