Swimming Pools

(asked on 21st July 2022) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will take steps to help ensure that every community has access to a (a) swimming pool and (b) safe outdoor swimming area.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 5th September 2022

We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities, including swimming pools, which are great spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities.

Sport England has invested £9,564,322 in swimming and diving projects since April 2019, which includes £6,260,502 to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund, which supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country after the pandemic.

Regarding outdoor swimming, bathing waters are designated through an application process and Defra welcomes applications for designation for both coastal and inland waters such as rivers.

The ongoing responsibility of providing access to safe places to swim, both in swimming pools and outdoors, lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to invest in leisure facilities.

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