§ Mr. GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the impact of the change in local authority expenditure on sport and physical recreation from 1998 to 2002. [119578]
§ Mr. CabornAccording to statistics provided by the Office of National Statistics, local authority spending on sport and physical recreation has increased slightly during the period between 1998 and 2002.
The Government recognises the importance of local delivery of sport and the impact it can have on levels of participation in physical recreation. The December 2002 joint Department for Culture Media and Sport/Strategy Unit report, 'Game Plan: A Strategy for Delivering Government's Sport and Physical Activity Objectives', assesses local authority delivery of Sport and makes a number of recommendations to improve delivery at that level.
The Department is currently considering how best it can take forward the commendations made in the Game Plan report.