Oral Answers to Questions

Charlotte Leslie Excerpts

Thursday 14th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

I sometimes wonder whether the Labour spokesman looks at a single thing that I am doing. We have given responsibility for libraries to the Arts Council, we have set aside a £6 million fund, we have published the CIPFA statistics and we are piloting automatic membership for school children. He simply rolls over when Newcastle proposes to cut its culture and its libraries, and says, “I back Newcastle.”

[Charlotte Leslie (Bristol North West) (Con)]

5. What steps she is taking with her ministerial colleagues in other Government Departments to advance the role of sport.

[The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Hugh Robertson)]

The Prime Minister has established the Cabinet Committee on Olympic and Paralympic Legacy, through which all Departments are working together to deliver a tangible and lasting legacy from London 2012. Sport is at the heart of that process.

[Charlotte Leslie]

It is evident that sport has a vital role in improving behaviour in schools and health outcomes, and in preventing youth offenders from reoffending, as I have seen at Ashfield young offenders institution near my constituency. Will the Minister pledge to work with colleagues from across Departments to ensure that such interventions are available to young people so that they can turn their lives around?

[Hugh Robertson]

Absolutely. That process is already happening, as is evident from the work that the Department of Health does through Change4Life clubs, the work of the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine, and the cross-departmental funding for the school games.