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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include (1) the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup, and (2) women’s world cup sporting events in the list of listed sporting events.

The Cricket World Cup final, semi-finals and matches involving home nations’ teams are listed under Group B of the Listed Events Regime. Events listed in Group B may have live coverage on subscription television provided that secondary coverage is offered to qualifying broadcasters.

Coverage of women’s professional sport on free to air television has improved significantly in the last ten years, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Euro Championships, Women’s Rugby World Cup, cycling and tennis being regular fixtures on the BBC and ITV.

We know that more can be done to improve equality in sports broadcasting. That is why we have just announced our proposal to add the Paralympic Games to the list and we have started the statutory consultation process to do that. We are also considering the addition of women’s only sporting events where the equivalent men’s only tournaments are currently listed, which we plan to consult on later in the year. This is to give equal recognition to disabled and women’s sports.