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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential health impact of improved access to grassroots sport for young people in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme, (b) Staffordshire and (c) England.

The Government believes that opportunities to play sport and get physically active should be available to everyone, including children and young people. Everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity.

Every bit of physical activity counts and the greatest public health benefit is enabling people, currently less active, to move more and lead more active lives. This can help to reduce the risk of a range of chronic diseases, in line with the Government’s aims to prevent ill health as set out in the recent NHS 10 Year Plan.

The Secretary of State and I engage regularly with the leadership of Sport England, including at quarterly meetings with the Chairs and CEOs of all DCMS public bodies.

A large part of Sport England’s work focuses on bringing the health and sports sectors together at community level, including their place partnerships work which is working in a targeted way with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers in their communities. Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire is one of Sport England’s place partnerships.