Asked by: Josh MacAlister (Labour - Whitehaven and Workington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to invest in tennis facilities following the end of the Park Tennis Project.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.
Sport England provides long term investment to the Lawn Tennis Association, the National Governing Body for tennis and padel tennis in Britain. It receives up to £10.2 million for five years to invest in community tennis and padel initiatives that will benefit everyone.
All future funding of sports facilities beyond 2025/26 will be considered as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Josh MacAlister (Labour - Whitehaven and Workington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether (a) her Department and (b) each of its arms length bodies offers employees who are foster carers (i) flexible working, (ii) paid time off for (A) training and (B) settling a new child into their home and (iii) other support.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has a number of policies which support employees who are foster carers and, subject to line manager approval, include:
A dedicated fostering employee policy where employees may be granted 5 days paid leave and up to 15 days unpaid leave. This overall entitlement can be taken as followed:
Up to 5 days paid leave during assessment for approval processes;
Up to 5 days unpaid leave during the approval process or when a child is in placement (including training and settling in);
Up to 10 days unpaid leave at the start of a planned permanent placement.
Note: staff who are fostering to adopt also have a statutory right to request up to 5 days paid special leave to attend pre-adoption appointments.
Flexible Working arrangements, such as flexi-time or compressed hours. All employees have a statutory right to request flexible working which applies from the first day of employment. Employees have a statutory right to make two flexible working requests in a 12 month period.
Unpaid and/or paid special leave, including 5 days paid leave for both a domestic emergency and for emergency dependent leave.
Our arm’s length bodies are independent employers and are responsible for implementing their own internal employee policies for foster carers, in addition to the statutory right for employees who meet qualifying criteria to request flexible working arrangements and emergency leave related to a dependent.