§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans she has to develop a local agency approach for(a) gaining access to, and (b) supporting funding for community sports initiatives; and if she will make a statement. [89999]
§ Mr. CabornSport England is, at my request, working on a programme of modernisation and restructuring. A key feature of the programme is the devolution of greater responsibility for funding decisions to the
Development Resources School Sport Co-ordinators £40 million Community Club Development Programme £20 million Step into Sport Volunteering Project £4 million Coach development £3 million New Opportunities Fund—School Sport and PE Programme £581 million (between 2001 and 2005) Space for Sport and the Arts £130 million (between 2001 and 2004) Sport England Grant in Aid £38.275 million (much of this will be directed to programmes for young people and grassroots sport.) Lottery Sports Fund £178 million (almost 80 per cent. of this will be allocated to youth and grassroots sport) The Department for Education and Skills will also be investing significant resources in sports provision in schools including £184 million for school sport coordinators and 115 million for specialist sports colleges over the next three years and £10 million for sporting playgrounds in 2003–04.
§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had with European colleagues regarding(a) resources for and (b) co-operation in securing international sporting events in European countries. [88730]
§ Mr. CabornI meet ministerial counterparts in EU member states at a range of international fora. In the course of these meetings, I have discussed major sporting events.
In the UK, sport's national governing bodies are responsible for securing the resources necessary for bidding for major international events, assisted where appropriate with Lottery and other funding from UK Sport and Sport England. Other EU member states have similar arrangements. It is the nature of the bidding process that national governing bodies compete for the rights to host events. As such, the scope for co-operation is limited to ensuring that fair criteria for bidding nations are applied by international sporting organisations.
308Wregions. To facilitate this process the regional sports boards are being reconstituted as sub-committees of Sport England. New chairs and members are being appointed, with the new boards becoming operational in April this year. Membership will comprise of representatives of local government, voluntary sport, education, health and private sectors. The boards will, in consultation with other regional agencies and local interests including regional assemblies, regional development agencies, regional cultural consortia, local, education and health authorities, produce regional sports strategies which will reflect national sporting priorities. The strategies will inform decision making by Sport England's regional offices on funding for community sports initiatives in their regions.
§ Mr. WoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department intends to spend in the next year developing sport at(a) youth and (b) grassroots levels. [89553]
§ Mr. CabornMy Department and the National Lottery will be investing the following resources in 2003–04 in the development of youth and grass roots sport.