§ 2. Mr. Harry GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many (a) under 16-year-old and (b) under 18-year-old (i) boys and (ii) girls are estimated to attend sports clubs for coaching and team games; at what cost to public funds; and if he will make a statement.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for National Heritage (Mr. Iain Sproat)The information is not held centrally. However, the Sports Council has 3 commissioned a national survey of young people's involvement in sport which will ask about their membership of sports clubs.
§ Mr. GreenwayDoes my hon. Friend agree that all money going into sports clubs for young people is to be welcomed—and that there should be more of it? We must also support Ron Dearing's initiative of including physical education on the school curriculum, because that is how young people learn to handle themselves physically for the rest of their lives.
Above all, however, does my hon. Friend agree that we must have team games on the school curriculum, because that is how young people will learn to handle themselves —[Interruption.]—as I know because, as a schoolmaster, I took a school team every Saturday for 23 years; the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Olner) should remember that. That is how young people learn civilised behaviour for the rest of their lives, and it is therefore crucial.
§ Mr. SproatI thank my hon. Friend very much. I certainly pay tribute to the money that the Sports Council gives youth sport, which runs at about £4 million a year. I strongly agree, too, that, good though the sports clubs' work may be, and important though it is, it is absolutely essential that it should not be a substitute for proper sport in schools. That is what we want to work at.