§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans her Department has for providing further support for voluntary athletics officials; and if she will make a statement. [17942]
§ Mr. CabornThe Government fully recognises the contribution of volunteers to the running of sport and the need to continue to invest in their training, recruitment and support. The Government's Plan for Sport provides that Sport England should be the national advocate of volunteering in sport in England and to provide support to national governing bodies of sport in the development and implementation of volunteering strategies. Key to these strategies will be the appointment by governing bodies of National Volunteer Managers to implement the strategies and Volunteer Co-ordinators at Regional and county level to provide support and raise the profile of volunteering.
A further recognition of the importance which the Government attach to volunteers in sport, particularly in ensuring that they are well trained, is the introduction of a £7 million training programme which the Department is currently developing. The programme will aim to build on existing schemes such as the Community Sports Leader and the Junior Sports Leader Awards run by the British Sports Trust and the Youth Sports Trust's Millennium Volunteers programme to provide training for up to 50,000 volunteers, of whom around 8,000 would be older people, to be coaches, administrators, officials, leaders and mentors. The programme will run for two years beginning in April 2002.