§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many school playing fields there were in(a) 1979 and (b) 1997. [147707]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 29 January 2001]: No data were collected centrally on how many school playing fields there were in either 1979 or 1997. The only data about playing fields under the previous Administration that we are aware of are derived from independent surveys carried out by the Central Council of Physical Recreation. The CCPR published a paper in 1984: "Sports Fields at Risk", which indicated that some 3,630 acres of recreation land recorded on Land Registers were at risk of disposal. A more meaningful way of quantifying the area under threat at that time is to translate it into about 5,000 school playing fields of sports pitch size.
Data to be collected through Asset Management Plans will, in the future, provide a clearer picture of the number of school playing fields throughout England. Once they have been validated, we plan to publish data collected from Asset Management Plans later in the year.