Oral Answers to Questions

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Select Committee.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

As the Select Committee looks into school and community sports, it has learned that the previous Government’s opening school facilities fund helped deliver sport to 300,000 people outside of school hours, seeing more girls, more disadvantaged pupils and more of those with special educational needs taking part. That fund ended on Monday, and I have already heard from two schools in my constituency that they will be scaling back their community provision. The Government talk a lot about the importance of communities and supporting young people, but this flies in the face of that, does it not?

[Lisa Nandy]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising that issue, and I will certainly look into the specific fund she has mentioned. The Education Secretary and I are committed to putting sport back at the heart of the curriculum and our classrooms. We will be in a position to announce more about that shortly, but we share the hon. Lady’s vision of schools that are the hubs of their communities and are open longer hours to enable them to provide those opportunities for young people.