Primary Schools: Swimming Lessons

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness identifies probably one of the many barriers that prevent parents and their children being able to swim if they are living in poverty. I am not aware of whether expecting branded swimming items is a barrier to children being able to swim, but if it is that is clearly wrong. I suspect that would be covered by the provisions in the Bill that we will receive in the near future to ensure that school uniform is not a barrier to children being able to learn, in this case, a very important skill.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, as we have heard, under the last Tory Government a lot of swimming baths were closed. The failure of that Government is a fact that they do not like to be reminded of. Is it not the case that deprived areas had their pools closed? Should we not look again at whether we should provide new swimming pools in the most deprived parts of Britain?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

My noble friend is right. I have already identified the decrease in the number of public pools, as others have. He also makes an important point about ensuring that there is access to public leisure facilities on a fair basis. The responsibility for that lies at the local authority level. We are continuing to encourage local authorities to invest in leisure facilities, notwithstanding the considerable pressures on their funding that they have faced over recent years.