HC Deb 13 July 1992 vol 211 cc795-6
5. Mr. Hawkins

To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what initiatives his Department is taking to increase participation and to raise standards in sport.

The Secretary of State for National Heritage (Mr. David Mellor)

It is an overall aim of our policy for sport to encourage participation and raise standards. The Sports Council works with local authorities, sports governing bodies and others to promote a wide range of sporting activities at local level. The council also supports a range of initiatives to enable participants to raise their performance level.

Mr. Hawkins

Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that the backing that the Government are rightly giving the Manchester Olympic bid is especially welcomed in the north-west, particularly in my constituency of Blackpool, South? Not only will it encourage greater participation, and the highest standards in sport—standards so well personified by Mr. Nigel Mansell, who achieved a splendid victory yesterday—but when it succeeds, it will greatly boost the hotel trade in the region, and in my constituency in particular.

Mr. Mellor

I am glad that my hon. Friend mentioned Nigel Mansell, whose great achievements the House has recognised. He is, of course, a great racing driver, but the extraordinary success of the engineering industry in the United Kingdom in producing so many of the cars which have transformed formula 1 racing is also most impressive.

We stand 100 per cent. behind Manchester's bid. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State will be going to Barcelona next week, as will a number of other Ministers, to ensure that it is made clear to the International Olympic Committee that the British Government fully support Manchester and will make sure, if it is successful, that the Olympics are run superbly well.

Ms. Hoey

Does the Secretary of State agree that the role of the voluntary sector, and particularly of unpaid sports coaches and school teachers in their spare time, in improving participation in sport is important? Does he share the concern that many voluntary sports clubs feel about the level of funding, and especially the burden of the business rate? Will he join me in the delegation going to see the Treastury about corporation tax and will he give his full support to exemption from corporation tax for the British Olympic Association so as to ensure that the money raised by voluntary effort for the Olympics can be spent on that and not given back to the Government?

Mr. Mellor

I probably have enough problems without adding to them, so I will leave the hon. Lady to make her own representations. There has been a substantial increase in Government support for sport—up nearly 30 per cent. to the Sports Council in real terms in the lifetime of this Government.

I am well aware of the hon. Lady's point, and it is particularly true when it comes to ensuring excellence among young people. I am sure that she will welcome the champion coaching scheme which last year enabled more than 6,000 children to benefit from quality after-school coaching and which came about because of the extra grant that the Government gave the Sports Council. Sports sponsorship, too, increasingly recognises the need to get in behind young people and to breed the champions of the future. That sort of idea is more alive in Britain today than ever before.