HC Deb 19 June 2002 vol 387 cc421-2W
Bob Russell

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what proportion of the £1.1 billion recently announced for sport in schools has been previously(a) allocated or (b) announced; [62984]

(2) which organisations will be responsible for distributing the £1.1 billion for sport in schools announced on 9 June; and what procedures will be in place to administer its distribution; [62981]

(3) if she will provide a breakdown of how the £1.1 billion for sport in schools will be distributed and the estimated timescale of the distribution of the money; [62980]

(4) from which budget heads the £1.1 billion to be made available for sport in schools will be provided. [62979]

Mr. Caborn

[holding answer 18 June 2002]: New investment in school sport announced over the past two years amounts to £1.1 billion. £750 million is being invested by the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) across the UK as part of its PE and sport programme, with a view to bringing about a step change in the provision of sporting facilities for young people and for the community generally. This includes a £25 million contribution to the Space for Sport and Arts and £30 million to the Football Foundation. The deadline for stage one applications from LEAs—who will be responsible for allocating the funds to deserving projects—has passed, and applications are currently being reviewed by NOF. Decisions on these are expected by the end of the year, at which point work on stage two applications can begin. All programme funds will be committed by the end of 2005.

£110 million is being invested in England on the current phase of the school sport co-ordination programme to meet our target of 1,000 co-ordinators by 2004. These co-ordinators will improve the quality and quantity of sport in schools by creating opportunities for children to participate in more sport, linking secondary and primary schools to improve sport at the latter, developing links between school and sports clubs and increasing out of school hours activities. Funding is made up of £30 million from the Sport England Lottery Fund (SELF), £60 million of grant in aid from DCMS through Sport England and £20 million in England (with another £5 million in the regions) from the NOF Phase 2 Out of Schools Hours Study Support funding. The programme is being administered by Sport England and there will be 742 co-ordinators in place by September. In addition to this, the DfES has so far designated 142 specialist sports colleges, and has set a target of 250 colleges by 2005. With an average investment of £592,000 per college, this amounts to an investment of £148 million by that time.

The Government is also investing £75 million from the capital modernisation fund in the space for sports and arts (SSA) scheme, with a view to providing greater opportunities for pupils and the wider community in deprived areas to participate in arts based and sporting activities by providing new, or modernising existing, facilities in primary schools. Funding is being made available through a partnership between central Government and lottery distributors, including £25 million from the SELF, £25 million from NOF PE and sport programme, and £5 million from the Arts Council of England, to create a £130 million programme overall. The SSA programme aims to fund around 300 projects. Grant offers were made between October 2001 and March 2002. Completion of the first project is expected shortly, with most of the building work getting under way during the current financial year.