Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2021 to Question 163699 on Football: Females, how much and what proportion of the funding under Sports England's (a) Uniting the Movement strategy and (b) Community Emergency Fund has been allocated to (i) women and girls football teams and (ii) men and boys football teams.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government remains committed to encouraging more women and girls to get active and helping women’s sport emerge from the current crisis stronger than ever. This is an important opportunity to create a long-lasting legacy for women’s and girl’s sport and the Government is determined that women’s sport is protected as we emerge from the pandemic.
Sport England’s new strategy, Uniting the Movement, has already committed an extra £50m to boost grassroots sports clubs and organisations - including women’s and girl’s football. Sport England expects to build on this investment as the implementation of the strategy progresses.
Sport England is also investing £24.6m in The Football Association over the course of 2016-21 for its work on grassroots participation, the football talent pathway, and coaching programmes. Within this, £2.6m is specifically reserved for women and girls talent programmes.
The Community Emergency Fund - part of Sport England’s COVID-19 support package - has delivered more than £5.38m of National Lottery funding for Association Football supporting both men’s and women’s football, and across Sport England’s COVID Support Package, £10,488,255 has been provide for 1,558 Association Football projects, benefitting all ages and genders.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the £2.25 million funding allocated to the Sport Winter Survival Package for the Women’s Super League includes other Government support.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 19 February 2021 we announced that the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship would receive a combined £2.25m of support from the Sport Winter Survival Package. This was grant support for essential costs across these two leagues, and included no other government support.
On 19 March 2021 we announced a further £680,000 in grant funding from the Sport Winter Survival Package for six women’s football clubs in these two leagues. This brought the total support provided to women’s football from the Package to £2.9 million.
Details about the methodology used to assess funding applications is provided in Sport England’s Programme Guide, available on their website at https://www.sportengland.org/news/more-details-given-sport-winter-survival-package
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the methodology used to allocate the funding to the Sport Winter Survival Package for the Women’s Super League.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 19 February 2021 we announced that the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship would receive a combined £2.25m of support from the Sport Winter Survival Package. This was grant support for essential costs across these two leagues, and included no other government support.
On 19 March 2021 we announced a further £680,000 in grant funding from the Sport Winter Survival Package for six women’s football clubs in these two leagues. This brought the total support provided to women’s football from the Package to £2.9 million.
Details about the methodology used to assess funding applications is provided in Sport England’s Programme Guide, available on their website at https://www.sportengland.org/news/more-details-given-sport-winter-survival-package
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions his Department has had with Ministerial colleagues of the Department for Education on plans to provide support to help increase participation in girl's football in primary schools.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. The Chief Medical Officer is clear that being physically active is important to long-term health and crucial for keeping people healthy. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport was at the front of the queue when easing those restrictions.
My department works closely with the Department for Education on school sport provision. Schools are free to organise and deliver a flexible, diverse and challenging Physical Education curriculum that suits the needs of all their pupils, which can include football for girls.
The Secretary of State for Education and the Culture Secretary jointly hosted a school sport roundtable in March where the English FA were represented. This roundtable launched our ongoing work to bring together a sports sector offer to support schools through an active summer recovery term, and on into the summer holidays, in order to get children and young people active again.
Minister Gibb and I also recently met with Baroness Sue Campbell, Director of Women's Football at the FA, to discuss PE and school sport including the work that Baroness Campbell is doing to increase the numbers of girls playing football in schools.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2021 to Question 163699 on Football: Females, what discussions he has had with representatives of Sport England on rearranging the FA FIVES tournament that was cancelled in 2020 as a result of the covid-19 public health restrictions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
I have had a number of conversations with Sport England, The FA, and numerous other stakeholders about the rescheduling of the UEFA EURO 2020 Championships, and associated events such as the FA FIVES, since their postponement due to the covid pandemic last year. The scheduling of the FA FIVES is a matter for The FA with the support of Sport England, however, we are confident of staging a successful men’s EURO 2020 Championships this year, and a successful women’s EURO 2022 Championships next year.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on delivering support through the Culture Recovery Fund to the culture and heritage sector in Barnsley.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In round one of the Culture Recovery Fund, 6 awards in total were made in the constituencies of Barnsley Central, totalling £609k.
In round two of the Culture Recovery Fund, 6 awards in total were made totalling £419k.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to review the methodology used to allocate funding from the Cultural Recovery Fund.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Last year the government announced the unprecedented £1.57 billion support package for the culture sector. Over £1 billion worth of funding from the Culture Recovery Fund has been allocated across all four nations of the UK. This includes over £800 million to almost 3800 arts, culture and heritage organisations in England, helping to support at least 75,000 jobs. A further £300 million of support was announced by HM Treasury at Spring Budget.
Rigorous criteria have rightly been applied, to ensure we are supporting organisations that have national and local importance. Our ALBs - Arts Council England, Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the British Film Institute - have the delegated authority to take decisions on grant applications due to their long established grant delivery role, their expertise and understanding of the sectors in which they operate.
In reviewing applications, our ALBs considered a number of factors, and organisations were only supported if they were both culturally significant and could robustly demonstrate that they are at risk of failure this Financial Year, and took all reasonable steps to support themselves financially.
They are overseen by the independent Culture Recovery Board, chaired by Sir Damon Buffini, which was created to increase assurance over the delivery of the Culture Recovery Fund programme, to leverage a range of external expertise to support decision making on grant applications and to take final decisions on loan applications.
DCMS works closely with the sector, Arm’s Length Bodies, the Culture Recovery Board, HM Treasury and the National Audit Office to keep the progress of fund allocations and the level of need in the sector under close review.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he made of regional inequality when allocating funding from the Cultural Recovery Fund.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Over £1 billion worth of funding from the Culture Recovery Fund has been allocated across all four nations of the UK. This includes over £800 million to almost 3800 arts, culture and heritage organisations in England, helping to support at least 75,000 jobs. Organisations were supported if they were culturally significant, could demonstrate that they are at risk of failure and that they had taken all reasonable steps to support themselves financially.
DCMS has worked closely with its Arm’s Length Bodies, who are delivering the fund to so we can best support the valuable cultural fabric of our towns and regions. Criteria have been applied to allocate funding to ensure we are supporting organisations that have national and local importance. Grants have been awarded to organisations as diverse as the Birmingham Hippodrome, Shakespeare’s Globe, Blackpool Tower Ballroom, Opera North and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, as well as thousands more ranging from internationally recognised cultural institutions to locally cherished organisations.
In the first round, 67% of grants awards worth over £1 million were awarded to organisations outside London. Regions particularly hard hit by the pandemic have felt the tangible impact of the fund. For example, funding is supporting organisations which employ 69% of arts sector employees in the West Midlands and 43% in the North West.
The second round is in progress, and a further £300 million of support was announced by HM Treasury at Spring budget to continue to support key cultural organisations, bridge the sector as audiences begin to return, and ensure a vibrant future for the culture sector, including theatres, as the nation recovers from the pandemic.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the Football Association on classing women's academy football as an elite sport.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are absolutely committed to women’s sport. I recently met with the Football Association about to discuss a range of issues, and we continue to liaise closely with them on women’s football.
It is up to the respective governing bodies to determine what constitutes the boundary between elite and non-elite within their sports and the classification of such competitions.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to allocate specific funding from the public purse to female grassroots football teams.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
I am committed to encouraging more women and girls to get active and helping women’s sport come out of the current crisis stronger than ever. Over the last year I have met with a range of sports organisations to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on women’s sport and how together we can address these challenges going forward. I have made clear in these discussions that I expect women’s sport to be protected through the pandemic and prioritised as we emerge on the other side.
Through our national sports council, Sport England, the government is investing £24.6m in The Football Association over the course of 2016-21 for its work on grassroots participation, the football talent pathway, and coaching programmes. Within this, there is no specific ring-fencing of funding between men's and women's programmes, apart from £2.6m which is specifically reserved for women and girls talent programmes.
Sport England has also awarded The FA £1m to date to deliver The FA FIVES national promotion programme, a mass participation five a side football competition linked to EURO 2021 & EURO 2022. Its aim is to provide opportunities throughout England for men and women to take part in a fun, friendly football event. In addition, they have awarded £987,000 towards the Women’s Euro 2022 Host City Legacy Impact intended to increase activity levels in football amongst women aged 16+.
Sport England has also provided £220m directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, via a range of funds including their £35m Community Emergency Fund. £2.25m of this funding has been awarded to the FA to support a safe restart of football. This funding will prioritise groups most impacted by Covid-19, including Women’s National League. This sector support was recently boosted by an extra £50m to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations as part of Sport England’s new strategy Uniting the Movement.
On 19 February, it was announced that women’s sport would also receive multi-million pound support through the Sport Winter Survival Package including £2.25m for the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship.