Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to help increase the number of children playing sport at school.

Through the primary physical education (PE) and sport premium, the Department has devoted over £2 billion of ringfenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013.

The premium supports primary schools to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport. The Government has announced that the £320 million primary PE and sport premium and funding for School Games Organisers will continue for the 2022/23 academic year.

The Government is supporting schools to open their sports facilities beyond the school day to offer more opportunities for pupils and communities to play sport and be physically active. Building on an initial £1.6 million in 2020, £10.1 million of extra funding has supported schools across England to open their sports facilities outside of the school day. In October 2021, the Government announced that it will spend nearly £30 million per year to fund phase three of the Opening School Facilities programme, as well as to improve the teaching of PE and sport at primary school.

The Government is updating the cross-Government School Sport and Activity Action Plan. This will be published in due course, to align with timing of the Government’s new sport strategy.