§ 7. Mr. Russell Brown (Dumfries) (Lab)What steps she is taking to encourage organised sporting activities, with the support of the police and local authorities, to combat antisocial behaviour of youths. [180467]
§ The Minister for Sport and Tourism (Mr. Richard Caborn)My Department is working very constructively with the Home Office and the Youth Justice Board to use sport to combat antisocial behaviour, most notably through the positive activities for young people programme and the positive futures programme. Sport England is putting an extra £500,000 funding into the positive futures programme this year.
§ Mr. BrownI thank my hon. Friend for that reply. In my constituency, as well as in many other parts of Scotland, we have seen the introduction of a midnight football league, supported by the police, the local authorities, the Bank of Scotland and, of course, the Scottish Football Association. Such initiatives are taking young people off street corners where they would otherwise be hanging about aimlessly or perhaps indulging in under-age drinking. Will the Minister promote such initiatives on a far wider scale and—dare I ask?—even support them with some financial input at the same time?
§ Mr. CabornI do not know the exact details of the scheme to which my hon. Friend refers, but I do know about midnight basketball, which is a similar initiative. A few months ago, I went to St. Pancras to visit a scheme that the National Playing Fields Association were involved in and had raised money for. It was absolutely fantastic. The youngsters had to have a quarter of an hour's lecture on the misuse of drugs before they went on to play basketball. The organisers brought in some of the basketball players from the area as well, and it was 11 absolutely superb. It really showed the power of sport to communicate in a way that sometimes little else can. Football has obviously taken that message to heart in Scotland. This is an area in which we might be able to look at the two schemes to which I have referred—the positive activities for young people programme and the positive futures programme—and perhaps tailor them to fit into the funding programmes that we already have. To date, 18,000 young people have made progress through the positive futures programme, which focuses on some of the most disadvantaged parts of the UK.
§ Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD)I entirely agree with the concept of organised sport contributing to the reduction of antisocial behaviour, but the Minister must not lose sight of the value of informal sporting opportunities, such as simply having a kick-about or somewhere to skateboard. Such opportunities are often not available in towns because there are signs saying "No ball games", and they are not available in the country because young people cannot get to the places where such activities are provided. Do we not need a much more focused approach by district councils, and Government support through the provision of cash to make such spaces available?
§ Mr. CabornThat is exactly what I was referring to earlier, and we have brought together playing fields and activities and facilities in looking at how we can do that. My hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries (Mr. Brown) talked about football in Scotland. On the south coast I saw one of the most innovative schemes, which involves BMX-ing, blading and skateboarding in an old converted garage. What the scheme is able to do is absolutely superb, especially in taking young people who did not want to get involved in organised sport. That is the window—the gateway—through which we can get them into organised sport.
Only a couple of weeks ago, I was down in Croydon with Duke McKenzie, the former triple world boxing champion, to see what he is doing with 24 young people brought to him by the probation service. It was absolutely fantastic. Talking to those young people showed how they now respect themselves and the company they are in, which is first class. We can use sport in many and varied ways to address antisocial behaviour.
§ Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich) (Lab)Will my right hon. Friend look, however, at how some of those organisations spend their money, particularly those such as the Football Foundation, which seem to find it simple to accept applications from those who are directly connected with commercial football, but find all sorts of barriers to put in the way of inner-city schemes that would give ordinary children exactly the support that they desperately need? Things are the wrong way round, and it is about time that we had some proper priorities.
§ Mr. CabornI am sorry that my hon. Friend thinks of the Football Foundation in that way, because it has motivated and developed a lot of grass-roots schemes through football. There are 40,000 football clubs in this country, which gives football the greatest participation by far, and I know that other sports are using those ideas to bring on young people and get them into sport.
12 I will look at the specific question, but I am bound to say that, under the leadership of Dave Richards, the Football Foundation has done a tremendous amount in the recent past in trying to couple the New Opportunities Fund with a series of Government initiatives and to make some sense out of that in terms of focusing on the inner-city areas. Football sometimes gets where other sports cannot get, and in using that avenue—that conduit—I believe that we can get more young people up and down the country playing more sport, particularly in inner-city areas.