The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Barran) (Con):...On the points
raised by the noble Lord, Lord Addington, on local authority
funding for future sporting events, the Government and UK
Sport regularly engage with local and regional authorities
when it comes to bidding for and staging major sports events. This
is clearly successful. Most recently, the UK hosted the 2017 World
Athletics Championships, the 2019 Netball...Request free trial
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport () (Con):...On the points raised by the noble Lord,
, on local authority
funding for future sporting events, the Government
and UK Sport regularly engage
with local and regional authorities when it comes to bidding for
and staging major sports events. This is clearly successful. Most
recently, the UK hosted the 2017 World Athletics Championships, the
2019 Netball and Cricket World Cups, and the UCI Road World Cycling
Championships, to name but a few, with a strong pipeline of events
in coming years. Local authorities have a range of revenue-raising
and fundraising powers to support them meeting the
financial contributions associated with
such events; for example, through local taxes, such as precepts and
business rates. Local or regional authorities may have particular
views on how best they can raise funds for such events; I know that
the Chancellor keeps the tax system under review and would always
welcome representations for improving it. The Government will of
course continue to work closely with local authorities to support
them in bidding for and successfully staging major sporting events,
building on our fantastic track record in hosting such
events...
(Con):...Although I fully
appreciate that the two events are to be separately organised under
separate legislation and separately financed, the final medal table
will include results from both: that will be the final results from
the Commonwealth Games, as I understand it. It is therefore very
important to the sportsmen, sportswomen and, indeed, the competing
nations to know what the final medal table will include, because
some Commonwealth countries will incentivise their teams according
to their position in the medal table when considering future
financial support for the training of athletes. Indeed, there may
be wider legacy projects: the higher you are in the medal table,
the better the ranking and, often, the greater the funding from
government. That is a common policy used by UK
Sport. As chairman of the British Olympic Association, I
was acutely conscious of the medal tally as it was being racked up
in London, watching with delight as we moved towards 29 gold, 17
silver and 19 bronze medals, and recognising that that ranking of
third was very important to UK Sport and other
funding agencies, and indeed to sponsors...
(CB):...We have to
think differently about how we use our school sites. The reality is
that, as much as we have this incredible elite success, today’s
children are the least active generation ever. Sport
England research in 2018 showed that just one in four boys
and one in five girls in England achieved the recommended 60
minutes of physical activity every day. As children lead
increasingly sedentary lives, they are at bigger risk of chronic
disease, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2
diabetes. That has serious implications for the NHS. We know that
children’s fitness declines by as much as 80% over the summer
holidays, so when they come back in September they are way behind
where they were at the start of the holidays...
:...The new facilities will include: the redevelopment of
athletics facilities at Alexander Stadium, to increase permanently
the number of seats from 12,000 to 18,000 post-Games; the creation
of a brand new aquatics centre in Sandwell which, in legacy, will
provide a 50-metre Olympic-sized swimming pool, a 25-metre diving
pool and 1,000 spectator seats for community use; and the addition
of new cycle lanes across the city. As my noble friend pointed out, the
Government have an important role in catalysing the impact of these
new facilities. We are therefore working with all the Games’
delivery partners and local stakeholders in the region to develop
programmes that will harness the power of the Games to promote
sport and physical activity. For example, the Department for
Education recently announced £20,000 of funding in Birmingham to
encourage more young people to become volunteers and coaches in
sports clubs and the local community in the run-up to the Games.
This will provide a boost for Birmingham and develop a pipeline
youth volunteer workforce ahead of the Games. We will also draw on
the evidence from Sport England’s £10 million
local delivery pilot investment to promote physical activity among
hard-to-reach groups in Birmingham and Solihull.
To respond to the points raised by the noble Baroness, Lady
Grey-Thompson, we are working with schools across the region to
ensure children and young people are able to access all the
opportunities to get involved in physical activity that the Games
will create. As well as making the most of the new facilities
developed as a result of the Games, we will look at how we can
make better use of existing facilities. Sport
England is already working with the Active Partnerships
network to open up school facilities outside school hours,
following a £1.6 million funding boost to help schools make
better use of their sporting assets. We will continue to work
with the network to explore ways in which school facilities can
play a part in the physical activity legacy of the Games...
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