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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on encouraging girls into sport in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle and (d) the North East.

My Department engages on a regular basis with a range of stakeholders to support grassroots sport.

A large part of our Arm’s Length Body Sport England’s work focuses on their place partnerships, where they work with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers to sport and physical activity in communities. Rise Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and County Durham, and Tees Valley Sport are two of Sport England’s place partnerships.

We’ve also committed another £400 million to transform facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years. We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, and will then set out further plans.

The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.

This includes supporting Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign which has inspired millions of women and girls to get active. We’ve also launched the Women’s Sport Taskforce to tackle challenges and barriers facing women and girls in sport, from grassroots to elite, and are harnessing the power of hosting major sporting events, such as investing £6.7 million into the Impact 25’ programme for the Women’s Rugby World Cup to make facilities more accessible for women. We’ve also announced plans to more than double the share of slots dedicated to women’s and girls’ teams at Government-funded facilities across England over the next five years.