A Bill to make provision about the administration and conduct of elections, including provision designed to strengthen the integrity of the electoral process; about overseas electors; about voting and candidacy rights of EU citizens; about the designation of a strategy and policy statement for the Electoral Commission; about the membership of the Speaker's Committee; about the Electoral Commission's functions in relation to criminal proceedings; about financial information to be provided by a political party on applying for registration; for preventing a person being registered as a political party and being a recognised non-party campaigner at the same time; about regulation of expenditure for political purposes; about disqualification of offenders for holding elective offices; about information to be included in electronic campaigning material; and for connected purposes.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities provide adequate leisure and recreational facilities for people with learning disabilities.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government recognises that access to high-quality inclusive spaces and opportunities for sport and recreation can make an important contribution to the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities.
In 2015, the Government sport strategy, Sporting Future: A Strategy for an Active Nation placed a focus on encouraging activity amongst those less likely to be active - including people with disabilities. The Government supports efforts that aim to encourage people with all forms of disability to become active and to fulfil their sporting potential.
The Activity Alliance's ‘Inclusive Fitness Initiative’ is supporting leisure centres to become more welcoming and accessible environments to disabled people. Activity Alliance run the initiative in collaboration with Sport England and UK Active and aim to give the active leisure sector support to improve, modernise and invest in its facilities, with the ambition that every facility in the country complies with the Activity Alliance ‘Inclusive Fitness Initiative’.
In 2018-19 the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government committed over £15 million to support a robust package of new Government initiatives to support vibrant and inclusive open spaces to enable more people to participate in leisure activities. This included the Pocket Parks Plus programme which is providing funding for 198 community-led projects across England to create new or renovate existing parks. A number of the successful projects will be creating open spaces that address social inclusion - and increasing access for people with different disabilities to leisure and wellbeing activities.