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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase the number of women taking part in sport.

Sport England’s latest Active People Survey results show that the number of women playing sport and being active in England is increasing faster than the number of men, with 7.12 million females aged 16 years or over playing sport once a week.

However, we recognise that there are various obstacles which still exist that put women off sport and initiatives such as This Girl Can, a Sport England behaviour change campaign, have helped encourage women and girls to get active. We are keen to remove any barrier that prevents women from taking part in sport and over the last year the government’s strategy for sport and physical activity ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for An Active Nation’ has been published as well as Sport England’s strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’. The aim of both strategies is to create a more physically active nation, where people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy the benefits that sport and physical activity can provide, at every stage in their lives.