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Written Question
Sewage: Rivers
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to provide public health warnings over the risk to (a) people and (b) animals of entering rivers into which sewage has been released.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government directed water companies to increase their storm overflow monitoring in 2013 and achieved 100% event duration monitoring (EDM) coverage before the end of 2023. EDM data shows when storm overflows are discharging, and how long discharges have lasted for. The wealth of data collected from these monitors will ensure that we know the full extent of the problem – increasing transparency, revealing the worst-offending overflows, and enabling regulators to hold polluters to account.

In addition, the Environment Agency takes over 7,000 samples each year at England’s 424 designated bathing waters, which are used to determine the annual bathing water classifications. These classifications are displayed on signage at bathing waters and online on the Environment Agency’s Swimfo website, to allow bathers to make informed decisions before entering the water. If there is a pollution incident, a notification is posted on the Swimfo website and on signage at the bathing water. Throughout the bathing season, the Environment Agency makes daily pollution risk forecasts for a number of bathing waters, where water quality may be temporarily reduced due to factors such as heavy rainfall, wind or the tide. When a temporary reduction in water quality is forecast, the Environment Agency issues a pollution risk warning and advice against bathing, enabling bathers to avoid times or locations where the risk of pollution is higher than normal and health risks from bathing may be higher than the annual classification suggests. To reduce risk to health from bathing waters, the UK Health Security Agency and the Environment Agency offer advice in their ‘Swim Healthy’ guidance, which is available to read before making any decision on swimming.


Written Question
Swimming Pools: Hendon
Wednesday 20th March 2024

Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Swimming Pool Support Fund on (a) the Copthall pools and (b) other leisure facilities in the Hendon constituency.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to swimming pools, as swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the Government continues to encourage Local Authorities to support swimming facilities. In 2023/24, the Government has provided over £60 million additional funding to support operating costs and help improve energy efficiency of facilities through the Swimming Pool Support Fund, delivered via Sport England.

Announcement of successful Swimming Pool Support Fund (SPSF) Phase I revenue funding awards was made by Sport England and on gov.uk on 4 November 2023. The fund was significantly oversubscribed and as a result we were unfortunately not able to fund all centres who applied. The criteria considered a range of factors including: financial need; the risk of closure; the proximity to other swimming pools providing public swimming access, and the level of demand for the facility.


Written Question
Sports: Facilities
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her letter to the hon. Member for Warrington North dated 5 March 2024, reference INT2024/01623/DC, what funding her Department has invested in grassroots sport facilities in each parliamentary constituency since 2021.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

We are committed to ensuring that every child, no matter their background or ability, has the opportunity to play sport and be active.

Between 2021 and 2025, the UK Government is delivering a historic level of direct investment of over £400 million to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK.

This includes £327 million across the whole of the UK between 2021 and 2025, including £25 million for the Lionesses Futures Fund. All projects are publicly available and can be found by financial year here.

We are also investing £21.9 million to renovate over 3,000 tennis courts across Scotland, England and Wales between 2022 and 2024. Completed projects are publicly available to see here.

In England, we have provided £60 million via the Swimming Pool Support Fund in 2023/24 to support public swimming pool providers with immediate cost pressures, and investment to make facilities sustainable in the longer-term. Phase one projects can be viewed here, with phase two projects to be announced in due course.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport also wrote to all MPs in early March, detailing the amount of funding and the different projects supported by the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, the Park Tennis Court Renovation Programme, and the Swimming Pool Support Fund, in their constituency.


Written Question
Playing Fields: Standards
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help improve the quality of sports fields in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to delivering world class sports facilities across the country, so that everyone can take part in sport and physical activity. As part of this commitment, the Government is delivering an historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK.

Over £363 million has been invested through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme since 2019 to provide new and improved football and multi-sport grassroots facilities across the whole of the UK. Funding is delivered via The Football Foundation’s partnership with the English FA and Premier League.

So far, Romford has received investment of £10,491 for three projects through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, as well as £2,500 through the Park Tennis Court Renovation Programme and £174,828 through the Swimming Pool Support Fund. All projects can be viewed here on gov.uk.


Written Question
Water: Contamination
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is providing public health warnings about the importance of avoiding water contaminated with sewage.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency takes over 7,000 samples each year at England’s 424 designated bathing waters, which are used to determine the annual bathing water classifications. These classifications are displayed on signage at bathing waters and online on the Environment Agency’s Swimfo website, to allow bathers to make informed decisions before entering the water. If there is a pollution incident, a notification is posted on the Swimfo website and on signage at the bathing water. Throughout the bathing season, the Environment Agency makes daily pollution risk forecasts for a number of bathing waters, where water quality may be temporarily reduced due to factors, such as heavy rainfall, wind or the tide. When a temporary reduction in water quality is forecast, the Environment Agency issues a pollution risk warning and advice against bathing, enabling bathers to avoid times or locations where the risk of pollution is higher than normal and health risks from bathing may be higher than the annual classification suggests. To reduce risk to health from bathing waters, the UK Health Security Agency and the Environment Agency offer advice in their ‘Swim Healthy’ guidance, which is available to read before making any decision on swimming.


Written Question
Leisure Centres: Rural Areas
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she is taking steps to support leisure centres in rural areas.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to leisure centres and swimming pools, as swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility for providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the Government continues to encourage Local Authorities to support leisure provision. In 2023/24, the Government has also provided over £60 million to support operating costs and help improve energy efficiency of facilities in all areas of England through the Swimming Pool Support Fund.

In order to deliver on our ambitions, set out in the sport strategy Get Active, we need a rich and varied facilities offer across the country, including in rural areas. This requires partners from across the public and private sectors to work together to ensure that provision is accessible, sustainable and reflects the needs of the community.


Written Question
National Physical Activity Taskforce
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many times the National Physical Activity Taskforce has met since it was created; and what progress that taskforce has made towards achieving its targets set out in the Get Active strategy.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The National Physical Activity Taskforce (NPAT) was launched in September 2023 as part of the government sport strategy Get Active, to bring together government departments, the sport sector and independent experts to deliver coordinated and innovative policy that will help encourage people to get active.

The NPAT meets quarterly and has held two productive meetings since its launch, with the next meeting scheduled for March. To make the ambitions of the Sport Strategy a reality requires long term behavioural change and that is why we have set our targets to 2030.

To help reach our target to get 3.5 million more people active by 2030, the Government is investing over £400 million into a wide range of grassroots sports facilities, including park tennis courts and swimming pools between 2021 and 2025. This is on top of the £323m in Exchequer and Lottery Sport England funding provided to help get people active.

We map our trends, targets and trajectories using the Sport England Active Lives Survey, and the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, which provides data and insight into activity levels and behaviours. The NPAT commissions short term-actions and milestones that can be measured to supplement our long term targets. The minutes and actions of each meeting are published on gov.uk.


Written Question
Swimming: Water
Wednesday 14th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which bathing waters have been de-designated in each region since 2015.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Since 2015, the following bathing waters have been de-designated in the Environment Agency areas listed below:

Area

De-Designated bathing waters since 2015

Cumbria and Lancashire

2

Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

3

East Anglia

1

Solent and South Downs

1

Wessex

2

Yorkshire

2

The names of these sites are:

  • Staithes
  • Newhaven
  • Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach
  • Rock
  • Silloth
  • Instow
  • Allonby South
  • Clacton (Groyne 41)
  • Burnham Jetty North
  • Ilfracombe Wildersmouth
  • Tunstall

Written Question
Swimming: Water
Wednesday 14th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications for bathing water status have been (a) made, (b) granted, (c) and (d) pending decision since 1 January 2023.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra has received 30 bathing water applications since 1 January 2023. All applications are currently being assessed by Defra officials against the eligibility criteria and evidence requirements set out in the bathing waters application guidance, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bathing-waters-apply-to-designate-or-de-designate.

In addition, Defra designated four sites as bathing waters in 2023, although the applications for these sites were received in 2022. These four sites were:

  • Sykes Lane Bathing Beach, Rutland Water
  • Whitwell Creek, Rutland Water
  • Firestone Bay, Plymouth
  • an area of the River Deben Estuary at Waldringfield, Suffolk


Written Question
Children: Swimming
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of school children leave school being able to swim at least 25 metres; and what proportion of those children are (1) Black, and (2) Asian.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey 2022/23 reports that 70.5% of pupils in year 7 say they can swim 25 metres unaided. Information is not published for demographic data for individual school years, but data for years 7-11 show that 52% of black children and 57.3% of Asian children report being able to swim 25 metres unaided. This is compared with 82.8% of white British children in years 7-11.

The department does not collect data on schools’ access to and use of swimming pools. The government recognises challenges to pool operators and is providing over £60 million to local authorities in England through the Swimming Pool Support Fund. The fund will keep swimming pools and leisure centres open, as well as investing in renovations to boost energy efficiency, reduce future operating costs and improve sustainability. The department is supporting schools to operate their swimming pools effectively through the Opening School Sport Facilities programme, worth up to £57 million over three years. Over 200 school pools have already benefited from this funding.