§ Miss HoeyTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what is the annual expenditure of the training and promotion of sports coaches by Her Majesty's Government. [39788]
§ Mr. SproatThe majority of Government support for sport and active recreation is channelled through the GB Sports Council. The Sports Council's grant to the National Coaching Foundation, which provides services for 70,000 coaches throughout the UK, is £1,550,000 for 1995–96. Additional support for coaches is provided through the council's grants to national governing bodies of sport and through other Sports Council funded sports development projects nationwide. The Government's sportsmatch scheme helps fund a small number of schemes which involve the training and promotion of sports coaches. The sports policy statement "Sport: Raising the Game" also identified a number of ways in which coaching would be extended and improved in schools, through clubs, further and higher education and elite athletes.