Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions have taken place between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education about increasing the provision of sports playing fields available for schools.

In June 2014, Sport England, in partnership with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education and the Department of Health, awarded £18 million of National Lottery funding, through the Primary Spaces programme, to 601 primary schools to transform their physical education (PE) and sport facilities.

The new facilities will be installed in the first 100 schools this summer, with the rest opening throughout the academic year and all completed by summer 2015. The fund will help schools make good use of spaces and provide facilities that will:

· inspire physical activity and participation by children

· enable and encourage healthy activity

· develop the foundations of a sporting habit for life.

Primary Spaces builds on and complements the primary PE and sport premium, through which we are providing over £450 million of ring-fenced funding across academic years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16. This goes directly to primary schools to be spent on the improvement of PE and sport.

In addition, from 2010 to the present day, Sport England have made 16 awards to schools, investing £750,000 of National Lottery funding towards total project costs of £1.6 million, as part of the protect playing fields programme. The sites cover a total of over 200 acres of land and each site has protection via charge for a minimum of 25 years. There are two more rounds of the funding planned with £5 million available each year for the next two years (2015 and 2016).

Officials and Ministers from both Departments meet regularly to discuss issues relating to the provision of PE and school sport, including the Primary Spaces and protecting playing fields programmes.