Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
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 help ensure that young people benefit from grassroots sports facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government believes that every child should have the opportunity to play sport and participate in regular physical activity. Our mission-led Government puts children and young people at the heart of our priorities. This includes breaking down barriers to opportunity for every child to access high-quality sport and physical activity inside and outside of school, especially those who are less likely to be active.
We provide the majority of our funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England - which invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. The expansion of Sport England’s Place Partnerships will invest up to £250 million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding and enhance engagement in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions, including for children and young people.
This Government recognises that grassroots facilities are at the heart of communities up and down the country and is acting to support more people to get active wherever they live through the delivery of the £123 million Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2024/25.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how the National Youth Strategy will help tackle barriers to opportunity for children and young people in Beckenham and Penge constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government is committed to tackling barriers to opportunity and to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential. The National Youth Strategy will allow us to put young people back in charge of their own destiny and provide them with meaningful choices and chances. We are working with young people and other key stakeholders to develop our plans. Further details will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
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 support the growth of the creative industries (a) through the Creative Careers Programme and (b) generally.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The creative industries are worth £124 billion to the UK’s economy and employ over 2.4 million people. As a sector in which the UK excels today, and which will propel us forwards tomorrow, the Creative Industries have been announced as one of the eight growth-driving sectors within the Industrial Strategy. As part of this, we will develop a Sector Plan which will be focused on driving growth and opportunity for creative businesses across the country. As a first step towards delivering the Sector Plan, the government has announced a £60 million package of support to drive growth, including £40 million investment for start-up video games studios, British music and film exports and creative businesses outside of London.
By providing £3 million to expand the Creative Careers Programme (CCP), the Government will continue to broaden and diversify the talent pipeline in the creative industries, through giving young people the opportunity to learn more about career pathways, and directly engage with creative workplaces and employers.
The CCP will target more young people from priority areas, which are currently identified as those places where children face the greatest disadvantage in accessing information about careers in the creative industries. The programme is designed to raise young people’s awareness of creative careers and pathways into them by providing specialist advice and information. It seeks to boost opportunities and support for young people aged 11 - 18 from backgrounds that are under-represented in the creative industries.