Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the connection between the selling off of school playing fields, the decline in organised team sports in areas where facilities are lost and reported concerns about the health and well being of children and young people.

The Government wants all children to be healthy and active. The playing fields that are disposed of each year continue to represent only a very small proportion of the total playing field land across the country. In many cases these are in respect of schools that have closed. In all cases consent has only been granted where schools have demonstrated there is no impact on their sports curriculum, and where the proceeds of sale are reinvested in sports or education facilities. No operating school has disposed of its entire playing field.

Since 2013 we have invested £600 million to improve PE and school sport in primary schools through the primary PE and sport premium. But we know we can still improve, which is why revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the primary PE and sport premium to £320 million a year from September 2017. This will allow schools to further improve the breadth and quality of the PE and sport they offer.