HC Deb 20 December 1962 vol 669 cc217-8W
Mr. Proudfoot

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is yet in a position to make a statement on the Government's policy with regard to the establishment of a Sports Development Council as suggested by the Wolfenden Report on Sports in the Community.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

Yes. This important subject has, as the House knows, been considered by a Committee set up by the Central Council of Physical Recreation under the Chairmanship of Sir John Wolfenden.

The House will remember that when on 8th May my right hon. and learned Friend the former Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the willingness of the Government to approve substantial increases in local authority and educational capital expenditure on recreational projects, he added that the Government was studying this Report and that its suggestions on organisation required further thought.

In the meantime considerable progress has been made with the provision of sporting and recreational facilities. On capital account, and this is the most important aspect from the financial point of view, publicly financed work on facilities provided exclusively for sport has risen from £3.6 million in 1960–61, to £9 million in 1962–63. In addition, capital expenditure on sporting facilities in connection with education will amount to about £18 million in the current year, and growing provision is made by industry and commerce for their employees. On the recurrent side, the annual grants to voluntary bodies such as the Central Council for Physical Recreation, the National Playing Fields Association and the Scottish Council of Physical Recreation have more than doubled since 1959 and now total £366,000.

These large and mounting expenditures are however contained in many different programmes for which responsibility is distributed between my right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Minister of Education, and the Minister of Housing and Local Government. The Wolfenden Committee were, in the Government's view, right in drawing attention to the fact that this is a subject which cuts across the normal division of Ministerial responsibility.

This is not a matter that can be solved, in the Government's view, by creating another agency that would be interposed between the responsible Ministers and local authorities. Schools and their playing fields must be planned together; local authorities must be in a position to plan their priorities.

The Government, therefore, while agreeing with the diagnosis of the Wolfenden Report, do not agree with the remedy it proposes of establishing a Sports Development Council. Co-ordination is of course required in the development of sporting and recreational facilities in the various programmes so that we can get the best value out of them. My noble and learned Friend the Lard President of the Council has been given special responsibility for ensuring this. He will have access to expert advice from both outside and inside the Government service, including of course the voluntary organisations concerned with various games and sports.