§ Mr. HargreavesTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will list the new measures in sport which(a) her Department, (b) her Department in conjunction with other Government Departments, (c) sports councils and (d) other relevant bodies have instigated since the last general election. [6894]
§ Mr. SproatSince the last general election, the Government have developed a radical strategy of profound changes in policy for the way in which the Government, and Government-sponsored agencies, deal with sport in this country. It is not too much to say that these new policies amount to a revolution in sport.
The main elements of this radical strategy stretch across a very wide range of sporting areas: from putting sport back at the heart of weekly school life— particular, but not exclusive, emphasis on traditional, competitive, team games—through constructing much closer links between local schools and local sports clubs, to setting up, for elite athletes, a British academy of sport, a network of regional institutes of sport, academies of individual sports, and a multi-million pound sports scholarship scheme for thousands of individual elite athletes.
In support of this radical strategy, the Government have first, completely reorganised the sports council structure, abolishing the old Great Britain Sports Council, and the old regional councils for sports and recreation, and setting
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London Buses London Underground All London Transport Network SouthEast British Rail RPI Actual Real Actual Real Actual Real Actual Real Actual Real 1985–86 8.6 2.5 7.2 1.3 7.7 1.7 7.2 1.7 6.9 0.9 5.9 1986–87 5.9 2.6 5.7 2.5 5.6 2.3 7.0 3.7 7.5 4.2 3.2 1987–88 4.9 0.0 6.4 2.3 5.8 1.7 5.2 1.2 5.4 1.3 4.0 1988–89 10.8 4.6 10.3 4.1 10.3 4.0 7.0 0.9 7.1 1.1 6.0 1989–90 10.3 2.3 11.1 3.0 10.8 2.8 8.5 0.6 8.0 0.2 7.8 1990–91 10.3 0.5 11.2 1.4 10.8 1.0 10.1 0.4 10.2 0.5 9.7 1991–92 9.6 4.6 9.9 4.9 9.7 4.7 9.5 4.5 9.2 4.3 4.7 1992–93 7.9 4.6 7.8 4.5 7.8 4.5 7.7 4.4 6.9 3.7 3.2 1993–94 8.0 6.2 7.6 5.8 7.8 6.0 7.7 5.9 5.9 4.1 1.7 1994–95 5.8 3.0 5.8 3.0 5.8 3.0 5.4 2.6 3.7 1.0 2.7 settingup an English Sports Council and a United Kingdom Sport Council, in addition to the existing Sports Councils for Wales and for Northern Ireland.
Secondly, the Government set up the sports councils as distributors of lottery funds to inject an unprecedented amount of money into sport in this country. Since the lottery was introduced two years ago, the sports councils have awarded over £439 million to over 2,568 sports projects, involving 59 different sports.
The main details of this radical new strategy for sport are set out in a 103-point paper, which I have today placed in the Libraries of the House. These measures cover the whole range of the sporting spectrum, and fall into 11 main categories:
- (i) sport in schools;
- (ii) sport in further and higher education;
- (iii) the role of governing bodies;
- (iv) the role of local authorities;
- (v) the role of local sports clubs;
- (vi) restructuring of the Sports Council;
- (vii) sport and safety;
- (viii) the National Lottery;
- (ix) other funding;
- (x) support for elite athletes; and
- (xi) UK sport in the wider world.