Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to extend the period of testing bathing water sites to 52 weeks a year.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra will continue to reflect on changes in how and where people use bathing waters, including new evidence where it exists around when and where people use bathing waters, to feed into future bathing water policy development.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to introduce real-time water quality monitoring stations in designated bathing water locations.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
During the bathing water season (May to September) the Environment Agency regularly monitors the bathing water quality at every designated site, resulting in the annual classifications. Alongside this the Environment Agency also issues daily pollution risk forecasts and warnings throughout the bathing water season, advising when there is likely to be reduced water quality. Defra will continue to reflect on changes in how and where people use bathing waters, including new evidence and technologies where these exist, to feed into future bathing water policy development.
Under the Environment Act 2021, the Government will require sewerage undertakers wholly or mainly in England to report on discharges from storm overflows in near-real time by spring 2025. Furthermore, in April, we also launched our consultation on Continuous Water Quality Monitoring and Event Duration Monitoring. This outlines the Government’s proposals to enhance the monitoring of storm overflow and final effluent discharges. The Government’s response to this consultation was issued on 14 September 2023. Water companies are now taking forward plans to implement this programme from 2025.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the adequacy of the number of designated bathing water locations classified as excellent in England.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of bathing waters in England meeting the ‘excellent’ (highest) standard in 2022 was 72.1%, which is the highest since new more stringent standards were introduced in 2015.
This is an increase of nearly 21 percentage points compared to 2010, when only 51.3% of bathing waters met the highest standard then in force. The Environment Agency works closely with local stakeholders at all designated bathing waters to drive water quality improvements.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact on the health of people under the age of 18 of having access to free sports facilities for at least two hours a week.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We know that active people are fitter, happier and healthier - which is why in our new Sport Strategy - 'Get Active’ - we set out an ambitious strategy to boost our national health by getting 3.5 million extra active people by 2030. This includes bold targets to reach communities with the lowest levels of physical activity.
As part of this strategy, we have set up a new National Physical Activity Taskforce to ensure we meet these targets, and will work closely with Sport England to track and measure the impact of our interventions. This will include measuring the progress made in tackling inactivity annually through the Active Lives Children survey, and in real time by seeking new sources of data that allow us to monitor progress.
Schools play a key role in allowing all children to have high quality opportunities to take part in PE and sport. In July we published an update to the School Sport and Activity Action Plan. This builds on the announcement we made in March that set out new ambitions for equal access to PE and sport and guidance on how to deliver 2 hours of quality PE a week, alongside over £600 million funding for the Primary PE and Sport Premium and the School Games Organiser network.
The Department for Education will be introducing a new digital tool to support schools with their reporting requirements for their PE and sport premium spend. This will hold schools accountable for how they use their PE and sport premium funding allocation to measure and improve the quality of PE and sport they provide.
Alongside this, the government is also investing over £300 million in grassroots football, tennis, swimming pools and multi-sport facilities across the UK by 2025 to increase participation and ensure physical activity should be accessible to all, no matter a person’s background or location. The historic level of direct investment to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK and support swimming pools in England, will also increase access for thousands more young people.
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, how many local authority swimming pools have closed in last 10 years.
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.
At the Spring Budget, the government announced a package of over £60 million to support swimming pools, which is targeted at addressing cost pressures facing public swimming pool providers. It will also help provide investment in energy efficiency measures to reduce future operating costs and make facilities sustainable in the long-term.
Between September 2013 and September 2023, 294 swimming pools closed (across 162 sites owned by Local Authorities). Over a similar period from 2014 to 2023, 256 swimming pools were built by Local Authorities (across 144 sites). Facilities can close for a number of reasons, including being replaced by a new site or to align with the strategic objectives of the local authority.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to help (a) repair and (b) reopen the Forum Leisure Centre swimming pool located within his Department's property in Quarry Hill, Leeds.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions are in the process of arranging a comprehensive scheme of repairs to the plant room servicing the Quarry House Leisure Centre Pool.
A quote for the works has been received and validated. With lead time for materials & subsequent programme of works, it is anticipated the pool will re-open in December 2023.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland on consultation with local authorities on the designation of bathing waters on private land.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland on consultations with local authorities on the designation of bathing waters on private land.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 to ensure people that people from all socio-economic backgrounds can participate in community sports.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to ensuring that everyone is able to enjoy the physical and mental health benefits that sport and physical activity provides, regardless of background. This is a central part of the Levelling Up agenda and will be a major focus of the Government’s upcoming Sport Strategy.
We fund the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arms Length Body, Sport England - which receives over £100 million in Exchequer funding each year. Sport England is responsible for growing and developing grassroots sport and getting more people active across England. Sport England's ten year strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ reinforces their commitment to increasing participation in sport and physical activity for those from under-represented groups.
Government is also investing nearly £400 million directly into grassroots sports facilities across the country up to 2025.
This includes over £300 million into multi-sport pitches and facilities across the UK to level up facilities by, in particular, targeting those communities most in need and increasing participation among under-represented groups, including women and girls, ethnic minority communities and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. At least 50% of the funding will go to the most deprived areas across the UK.
Through our partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the government is renovating park tennis courts across England, Scotland and Wales. The Government is investing £22 million, with a further £8 million from the LTA. This funding will bring over 3,000 courts up to playable standard by 2025.
At Spring Budget 2023, the Government also announced the £63 million Swimming Pool Support Fund to address the cost pressures facing some public swimming pool providers, and provide investment in energy efficiency measures to make facilities sustainable in the long-term and ensure communities can continue to access the facilities they need.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness of social prescribing in improving (a) physical and (b) mental health.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work to understand the effectiveness of social prescribing to enhance physical and mental health building on existing positive local evidence.
As part of our commitment to the cross-Government, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)-led Green Social Prescribing Programme, we have commissioned and funded three clinical research feasibility studies that could lead to full Randomised Controlled Trials via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. These studies aim to test the effectiveness of nature-based activities on mental health outcomes, including outdoor swimming as a nature-based intervention for depression, angling to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and work with Newquay Orchard and the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust. The Department expects decisions to be made soon on whether they will proceed to full scale trials.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of including swimming in social prescribing.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work to understand the effectiveness of social prescribing to enhance physical and mental health building on existing positive local evidence.
As part of our commitment to the cross-Government, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)-led Green Social Prescribing Programme, we have commissioned and funded three clinical research feasibility studies that could lead to full Randomised Controlled Trials via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. These studies aim to test the effectiveness of nature-based activities on mental health outcomes, including outdoor swimming as a nature-based intervention for depression, angling to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and work with Newquay Orchard and the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust. The Department expects decisions to be made soon on whether they will proceed to full scale trials.