Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage grassroots sports clubs to share their facilities with local communities.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government recognises that sports facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active.

Sport England, our arm’s length body that is responsible for physical activity and sport participation in England, invests over £250 million a year into grassroots sport and physical activity. A large part of Sport England’s work focuses on bringing organisations together at a local level including the health and sports sectors. This includes their place partnerships work which is working in a targeted way with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers in their communities.

The Government-funded School Games Organisers are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity. There are over 450 SGOs across the country who support schools in their local areas to provide physical activity both inside and outside of school, with many facilitating links to wider club and community engagement.

We are considering how we can best make all of this work for local communities as part of the Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage local authorities to develop strategies to bring (a) schools, (b) grassroots sports clubs and (c) other relevant organisations together to promote participation in sport.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government recognises that sports facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active.

Sport England, our arm’s length body that is responsible for physical activity and sport participation in England, invests over £250 million a year into grassroots sport and physical activity. A large part of Sport England’s work focuses on bringing organisations together at a local level including the health and sports sectors. This includes their place partnerships work which is working in a targeted way with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers in their communities.

The Government-funded School Games Organisers are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity. There are over 450 SGOs across the country who support schools in their local areas to provide physical activity both inside and outside of school, with many facilitating links to wider club and community engagement.

We are considering how we can best make all of this work for local communities as part of the Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential contribution of grassroots sports clubs to providing (a) training, (b) experience and (c) other employment related skills as part of the Youth Guarantee Scheme.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Sports, arts and culture play a vital role in our society and economy. They create hundreds of thousands of jobs, drive economic growth, and bring joy to millions. That is why we formed our initial Youth Guarantee partnerships with the Premier League, Channel 4, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Across the country, many national and local organisations already do inspiring work with disadvantaged young people – helping them to build skills, grow in confidence, and access meaningful experiences, qualifications, and employment. DWP already works with organisations such as the English Football League, Rugby Football League, CoachCore and SportsWorks.

We are now exploring opportunities to expand initial Youth Guarantee partnerships by bringing additional organisations from the sports, arts, and culture sectors into national partnerships. For example, in the North West there is a network of grassroots sports organisations that we refer young people to for holistic support through the platform of sport.

In the North West they have found that referring to organisations such as Street League gives our young people access to mentoring, career advice, daily sport and fitness activities, and the opportunity to acquire recognised sports qualifications to pursue careers in the industry.

We continue to build relationships with grassroots and league clubs across the country to expand our network of options. Following insight with young people, we continue to work with organisations to identify gaps in their existing offers and how we can tailor programmes to better suit their needs.

These partnerships will connect young people across the country and offer a wide range of development opportunities – such as apprenticeships, work experience, training courses, and employability programmes. By engaging young people in a shared effort to enter and progress in the workforce, we aim to set them on a path to long-term success.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) how many applications were made to and (b) what the expenditure was from the Adoption and Special Guardian Support Fund in 2024-25.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

In the 2024/25 financial year, the adoption and special guardianship support fund received 20,085 applications and all were approved. The expenditure was £60,355,181.91, comprising therapeutic services and administration of the fund.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of Personal Independence Payment recipients are in work in (a) Worsley and Eccles constituency, (b) Salford, (c) Wigan, (d) Greater Manchester City Region and (e) England and Wales.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

For the proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants who are in work by different geographic breakdowns, please see table 1 below.

Table 1: the percentage of PIP claimants who are in work by different geographic breakdowns

Source(s): PIP Administrative Data and HMRC data

Notes:

• Figures are for March 2024 which is the latest employment data available.
• Figures only include claims made under normal rules and exclude claims made under Special Rules for End of Life (SREL).
• Figures only include claimants who are working age.
• Employment category includes self-employed as well as employees.
• Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

Found: Downie; Mary Kelly Foy; Gill Furniss; Mr Richard Holden; Gurinder Singh Josan; Lee Pitcher; Michael Wheeler

Found: Pitcher (Labour, Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (added 4 Nov 2024) 8 of 10 (80.0%) Michael Wheeler

Found: for Business and Trade) Anneliese Midgley (Lab) Adam Thompson (Lab) Laurence Turner (Lab) Michael Wheeler

Submit Evidence (by 31 Jul 2025)

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