§ Mr. HepburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans she has further to develop grassroots sports in the north-east. [20358]
§ Mr. CabornThe Government are committed to the development of sport and increasing opportunities for participation throughout the country. The strategy for sport—A Sporting Future for All—and the Government's plan for sport set out an action plan on how we intend to achieve those objectives. Responsibility for developing grassroots sport at the regional level rests with a number of organisations including Sport England, local authorities, local education authorities, schools, sports governing bodies, sports clubs, volunteers, and in order to ensure the best use of resources it is essential that all these interests work in partnership.
298WIn the north-east region all of the programmes for providing better sports facilities and improving sports provision are being implemented. These include lottery funding, where almost £80 million has been committed to the region, the school sport co-ordinators programme and specialist sports colleges, while £20.6 million under the spaces for sport and arts, £37.9 million under NOF Round three and £2.8 million under the NOF Green Spaces programmes will be invested into facilities which will be available to schools and the wider community.
The North East Sports Board has also published its Sports Strategy—2001–2006 as a result of which eight action plan implementation groups have been set up to take forward a range of issues including investment in sport, health, education, social inclusion and links to economic and cultural strategies.
For the future I have made it clear that I want to see a strengthened regional structure for the delivery of sport in the regions which involves local decision making and strong partnerships with all the key local interests. I will be discussing these issues with the Sport England Council and its new chief executive when he is in post.