Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) girls and (b) boys who play (i) football and (ii) other sports at (A) primary and (B) secondary school.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not routinely collect data about which sports pupils participate in during the school day. It is up to schools to decide which sports they offer, so that they can meet the needs of their pupils. Factors influencing which sports schools may offer include the space and equipment available.
The department asked what types of sports were available to Year 7 to Year 11 pupils in the Parent, Pupil and Learner Panel, covering the 2021/22 academic year. Girls reported that they were less likely to have football, basketball, cricket and rugby available to them during PE lessons in comparison to boys. By contrast, girls did report that they were more likely to have rounders, netball, badminton, dance, gymnastics and volleyball available to them. Further information can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/parent-pupil-and-learner-panel-omnibus-surveys-for-2021-to-2022. Schools can and do separate sporting experiences for boys and girls on the grounds of safety and fairness, but they should take the time to reflect on how this affects girls and boys accessing the same sports equally.
The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey data for the 2022/23 academic year was published by Sport England on 7 December 2023 and shows a significant increase of 4 percentage points of girls in Years 1-11 playing football over the last week compared to the baseline data collected in the 2017/18 academic year. This data is accessible at: https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-12/Active%20Lives%20Children%20and%20Young%20People%20Survey%20-%20academic%20year%202022-23%20report.pdf?VersionId=3N7GGWZMKy88UPsGfnJVUZkaTklLwB_.
On 8 March 2023, the department announced over £600 million in for the primary PE and sport premium in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, and £57 million up to March 2025 for the Opening School Facilities programme. Schools can use this funding to increase their sport provision, raise overall quality of PE and improve the opportunities for all boys and girls to access sports.
In July 2023, the government published the School Sport and Activity Action Plan, which set out the expectation for schools to provide girls and boys with the same access and opportunity to play sports in PE and wider school sport. To encourage this, the government has overseen a change to the School Games Mark, which is delivered by the Youth Sport Trust. From September 2023, schools must demonstrate how they are overcoming gender barriers faced by girls and boys in PE and wider school sport as part of their planning and delivery.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2022 to Question 107201, if he will list the value of the loans made to each of those 15 sports.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Sport Survival Package distributed a total of £264.8 million funding (loan and grant funding) to over 1,685 organisations across 15 sports to ensure their survival throughout the pandemic.
£218,271,393 was provided through loans to the sports listed below:
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 November 2022 to Question 87999, if he will provide a breakdown listing (a) the 15 sports that received loans and (b) the total number of loans allocated to each.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Sport Survival Package distributed a total of £264.8 million funding (loan and grant funding) across 15 sports to ensure their survival throughout the pandemic.
The number of loans issued to sports and their organisations is as follows: one loan was issued to athletics, 10 loans were issued to basketball, 35 loans were issued to football, one loan was issued to horse racing, five loans were issued to ice hockey, five loans were issued to motorsport, five loans were issued to netball, one loan was issued for non-ticketed events, 27 loans were issued to rugby league, 103 loans were issued to rugby union and one loan was issued to tennis.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to reopen golf courses closed in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity including golf are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. Golf courses were one of the first sports facilities to be reopened following the initial lockdown and they were also able to stay open in the local tiered restrictions.
On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The approach focuses on data, not dates. Each step has a “no earlier than” date, 5 weeks later than the previous step, to allow time to assess the impact of the previous step and provide a week’s notice before changes occur. As part of step one, outdoor sports facilities like tennis and basketball courts, golf courses, including adventure golf will be opened from 29 March, subject to social contact limits.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to support the safe return of (a) badminton, (b) table tennis, (c) squash, (d) basketball, (e) netball, (f) volleyball and (g) other indoor sports after the end of the national covid-19 lockdown restrictions that commenced in November 2020.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. As the Prime Minister said on 23 November national restrictions will end on Wednesday 2 December and grassroots sport can resume in all tiers. This is providing social distancing remains in place, although there will be some restrictions on highest-risk activity in tier three areas.
In tier one areas indoor sports can take place within the rule of six. This will mean people from different households could play 3 on 3 volleyball, or four people from different households could play doubles tennis or badminton. Group activities such as training sessions and exercise classes can take place in larger numbers, provided that people are in separate groups (up to 6 people) which do not mix.
In tier two areas, indoor sport can take place within households, and people can take part in group activity like exercise classes as long as there is no mixing between households. People can play certain sports which do not involve close proximity or physical contact against one person from another household, such as a singles tennis match or badminton match.
In tier three areas, indoor sport will be restricted to within your household only, and there should be no group activity such as exercise classes.
Further details are to be announced imminently.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department has issued to (a) local councils and (b) grassroot sports clubs on whether (i) basketball and (ii) other contact sports can be resumed at the local level as the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sport and physical activity is hugely important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. That is why the Government continued to permit people to take daily physical activity, including walking, running and cycling, even during the height of the lockdown.
The latest guidance on the phased return of sport and recreation can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-phased-return-of-sport-and-recreation. The Government is in discussions with representatives from the sport and physical activity sector about the steps required to get remaining sports up and running (including team sports and contact sports). We will update the public when it is deemed safe to do so.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they give to women's basketball.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
For the 2017-21 cycle, Sport England has invested £268,588 in 34 basketball projects over the period including 10 projects for women and girls. These projects include Basketball England’s SlamJam for boys and girls aged 7-11 delivering basketball in a fun way in schools and clubs and Junior NBA created for boys and girls aged 11-13 in secondary schools.
Sport England have also awarded ten small grants between 2018-2020 totalling £80,950 in grassroots projects delivering basketball that explicitly target women and girls.
Separately Basketball England, who receive Sport England funding, have launched All Girl Basketball. This campaign aims to make girls aged 11-16 aware of opportunities to engage with basketball and convert that awareness into participation.
UK Sport are also investing in basketball: for the current funding cycle (2017-21) GB Basketball received £500,000 as a ring fenced grant which was spent between both the men’s and women’s squads. The national women’s team also received an additional £330,500 from UK Sport's Aspiration Fund to support them as part of their qualification campaign for Tokyo 2020. In total GB Basketball have received £830,500 of public funding to support the sport in their Tokyo qualification campaign.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the press release of 1 April 2019 entitled Government to harness power of sport to tackle youth violence, what commitment the Government has received from (a) the Premier League on increasing participating in the Premier League Kicks campaign; and how many more children will participate in that scheme, (b) Sport England on increasing participation in crime hotspots; and how many more children will participate in such schemes and (c) sports’ organisations including basketball, boxing and cycling and community-based sports charities on engaging young people in hard to reach areas.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Following the Prime Minister's summit on serious violence in April this year, government has been working with the Premier League, Sport England, National Governing Bodies and other organisations in the sport and physical activity sector to explore what more can be done to use sport and physical activity to tackle serious violence, including knife crime.
Using Sport England insight and Home Office hot spot data, action will be targeted at the areas that need it most. Detail is still being developed and further information will follow over the summer.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 9 May (HL15351), what support they are giving to women's and girls' (1) basketball, and (2) netball.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government wants to get more people from all backgrounds embracing sport and physical activity, including those less likely to do so such as women and girls, and help them to get active in ways that suit them.
Sport England, the government arm’s length body responsible for grassroots sport in England, are investing in a series of programmes and initiatives to increase participation amongst women and girls in basketball and netball. This includes £19.7m for the 2017-2021 funding cycle in England Netball to increase the number of women and girls participating in the sport. England Netball deliver this through programmes such as Back to Netball and Walking Netball and to support the high performance pathway. The Netball World Cup will also continue to build interest in the sport and will be supported by the This Girl Can campaign.
Sport England are also investing £6.04m for the 2017-2021 funding cycle in Basketball England to fund both the talent pathway and community participation. Funded programmes focused on increasing girl’s participation in the sport include Junior NBA (a city based schools league competition) and the recently launched Slam Jam (aimed at primary school aged children).
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to encourage female participation in team sports at (a) amateur and (b) professional level.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The fantastic performances at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, the UEFA Women’s Euros, World Athletics Championships, Women’s Rugby World Cup and the Commonwealth Games among others, have been truly inspirational. It is vital we build on these successes at the grassroots and elite levels.
This government supports some fantastic initiatives that encourage women to take up sport and physical activity at the grassroots level. For example Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign which promotes team sports such as rugby, basketball and goalball. Sport England have also committed around £85 million into the England talent system and currently fund England Talent Pathways in 43 sports (including team sports). In August 2018 Sport England published their Talent Plan in which they committed to working with new partners to identify and develop talent from under-represented groups in other environments or locations.