(Con):...Sport
has been an important part of my life, as I suspect it has for
others taking part. It began with netball at school, followed by
hockey, tennis and, in later years, golf. We were encouraged to
take part and do our best but, as others have said, always to
remember that we were part of a team. That is so important. I am
glad that Sport
England is investing some £40 million in
large-scale facilities and that its community asset fund provides
grants of up to £150,000 to organisations and communities that want
to take over the ownership of spaces in their local areas...
(Con):...We are
all familiar with the image of the typical teenager these
days—glued to a smartphone or stuck in their bedroom playing
computer games hour after hour. There is no shortage of evidence
that young people do not take enough exercise, as mentioned today.
According to Sport
England, 80% of girls and 70% of boys do not meet the
Chief Medical Officer’s national recommended level of activity. The
challenge is particularly great for disadvantaged young people, who
do not always have access to good facilities or the opportunity to
participate in sport...
...Such opportunities should be available across the country,
through the creation of a locally led national referral pathway to
be used by youth offending teams and other agencies to help reduce
crime and reoffending by directing young offenders into sport and
physical activity. I ask my noble friend the Minister to explore
the potential to integrate sport into the core crime reduction and
protection policies across Government. The aim would be to develop
an early pathway to connect the youth justice sector with community
sport to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour. A huge leap in the
right direction would be to get key agencies and organisations such
as the Home Office, the MoJ, the Youth Justice Board, the
Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, DCMS
and Sport
England around a table. The potential benefits
are clear to see, for the young people and for wider society:
fitter, healthier and more focused teenagers, as well as safer
communities with fewer victims of
crime...
(Con):...We particularly want to reach people who have not
traditionally got involved, or who think that being active is not
for them. Sport
England has committed to spending at least a quarter of
its budget on tackling inactivity. For example, it is investing up
to £100 million in 12 local delivery pilots across the country to
solve inactivity challenges in specific locations and scale up what
works in other areas. Such areas include Doncaster, South Tees,
Hackney and Greater Manchester.
Investment is also going into mental health projects such as
Mind’s Get Set to Go project, supported by Sport
England and the National Lottery. Since 2015, this
project has helped more than 3,500 people with mental health
problems take part in specially designed physical activity
projects. The evaluation has shown the important role that
physical activity can play in building resilience and supporting
mental health recovery. As was recently revealed by the new
Active Lives Children and Young People survey, it is encouraging
to see that some 3 million children lead active lives, doing an
average of 60 minutes or more of physical activity a day.
But let me be clear: there is another side to this story. Some
2.3 million children and young people— that is almost a third—are
doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity a day. This is
unacceptable. We must do more, and the Government must do more,
to encourage young people to live healthy, active lives. To
answer to a question raised by my noble friend Lady Sater, this
is something we will tackle through the new cross-departmental
school sport and activity action plan, with DCMS, the Department
for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care
working together. We will make it a priority to ensure that all
young people have sufficient opportunities to engage in sport and
physical activity.
Government is working ever closer. For example, just last week
five Ministers appeared in front of the DCMS Select Committee at
the same time to discuss the social impacts of culture and
sport—the first time this has happened.
My noble friend raised an interesting
point about introducing legislation—I think he called it, as a
start, sports law. The Government have no such plans currently,
but he made some interesting points and I will certainly take
them back to the department.
Good-quality facilities and spaces are important factors to keep
people engaged over the long term. Sport England is investing up to £40
million in large-scale sports facilities projects up to 2021, and
a further £15 million per year in smaller-scale projects through
its Community Asset Fund. We recognise that playing fields are a
vital part of sporting infrastructure up and down the country and
are one of the most important resources for sport in England.
Every school must, by law, have access to enough playing field
space to meet its sports and curriculum needs. Sporting
Future made clear our support for bringing together
sports and physical activity facilities with other community
services. It also highlighted the benefits of multisport
facilities in improving usage and sustainability...
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