Football: Women’s World Cup

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

Yes, I would.

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that one of the key ways of celebrating success would be to see greater participation by women in all sports? Assuming he does, what are the Government going to do to address the problem that only about 31% of women regularly participate in sport, whereas the figure for men is 41%, and the proportion of women taking part in sport once a week has fallen year on year since 2011-12, with 275,000 fewer women participating?

[The Earl of Courtown]

I am afraid I did not hear the first part of the noble Lord’s question, but I think it was basically about falling participation in sport in general.

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

It was about the differential between men and women and what the Government are doing to increase the number of women.

[The Earl of Courtown]

There are many role models who women taking part in sport can look up to. In this House there are the noble Baronesses, Lady Grey-Thompson and Lady Heyhoe Flint. We have to encourage as many women as possible to take part in sport. We have a number of great events coming up over the next few months, such as the Ashes for the women’s team and the netball world cup. Rowing, too, is a great success story: 26% of people rowing are women, and the biggest increase in the number of people taking part in rowing has been in women.