Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will take steps to tackle the deteriorating condition of park tennis courts in England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity providers and facilities are at the heart of our communities, and play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. Having access to high quality facilities is central to this.
Through the pandemic, Sport England has provided £220million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres, via a range of funds including their £35million Community Emergency Fund. This includes 164 awards to tennis totalling £787,879 through Covid funding since March 2020. Sport England also invested £2,084,948 in the Lawn Tennis Association as part of the rollover of NGB national funding in 2021/22.
In January 2021, Sport England also published their strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ and as part of this have committed an extra £50million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Beyond Covid, Sport England has awarded £14,807,641 to tennis projects since 2017, 101 of which had elements of capital investment (totalling £2,474,618). Sport England also made 578 awards to multi-sport projects (totalling £38,199,899) where tennis is expected to benefit in the same period.
The Government continues to work closely with the Lawn Tennis Association and local partners to support the maintenance and development of these facilities.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the condition of park tennis courts in England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity providers and facilities are at the heart of our communities, and play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. Having access to high quality facilities is central to this.
Through the pandemic, Sport England has provided £220million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres, via a range of funds including their £35million Community Emergency Fund. This includes 164 awards to tennis totalling £787,879 through Covid funding since March 2020. Sport England also invested £2,084,948 in the Lawn Tennis Association as part of the rollover of NGB national funding in 2021/22.
In January 2021, Sport England also published their strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ and as part of this have committed an extra £50million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Beyond Covid, Sport England has awarded £14,807,641 to tennis projects since 2017, 101 of which had elements of capital investment (totalling £2,474,618). Sport England also made 578 awards to multi-sport projects (totalling £38,199,899) where tennis is expected to benefit in the same period.
The Government continues to work closely with the Lawn Tennis Association and local partners to support the maintenance and development of these facilities.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will extend the six-month deadline for the Coronavirus Community Support Fund where lockdown measures introduced in November 2020 and from January 2021 have delayed recipients from making use of these funds as intended.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF) is a £200million grant scheme which helped organisations to meet service costs where they were experiencing increased demand and/or short-term income disruption. Funding is distributed and administered by The National Lottery Community Support Fund (TNLCF).
Under the terms of the scheme, all funding had to be distributed and spent by recipients in the 2020/21 financial year. TNLCF began awarding grants in early July 2020 and, as of 15 March 2021, 99.9% of the funding had been disbursed to over 8,000 organisations.
Grant agreements are between TNLCF and grantees, and grants were initially intended to cover a six month period. However, successive lockdowns put additional pressure on charities to deliver, and not all projects were able to go ahead as envisaged. Where this was the case, TNLCF encouraged flexibility within terms of the grant agreement to help grantees adapt and continue to deliver their ambitions. This included some extensions to grants where appropriate.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the proportion of the £200 million Coronavirus Community Support Fund which must be repaid by recipients after the six month deadlines expire; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF) is a £200million grant scheme which helped organisations to meet service costs where they were experiencing increased demand and/or short-term income disruption. Funding is distributed and administered by The National Lottery Community Support Fund (TNLCF).
Under the terms of the scheme, all funding had to be distributed and spent by recipients in the 2020/21 financial year. TNLCF began awarding grants in early July 2020 and, as of 15 March 2021, 99.9% of the funding had been disbursed to over 8,000 organisations.
Grant agreements are between TNLCF and grantees, and grants were initially intended to cover a six month period. However, successive lockdowns put additional pressure on charities to deliver, and not all projects were able to go ahead as envisaged. Where this was the case, TNLCF encouraged flexibility within terms of the grant agreement to help grantees adapt and continue to deliver their ambitions. This included some extensions to grants where appropriate.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Government's guidance on searching for archaeological finds in England during COVID-19, what evidence basis his Department used to determine that metal detecting could continue in public outdoor spaces but not on privately owned land during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Guidance on searching for archaeological finds in England during Covid-19 (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guidance-on-searching-for-archaeological-finds-in-england-during-covid-19) on the gov.uk website explains how the legal restrictions in force in England from 5 November under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions)(England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 impact the activity of metal detecting. In particular, the guidance outlines the effect of the restriction on leaving home without reasonable excuse (under regulation 5), and the exception to that restriction (in regulation 6(2)(d)) which permits a person to visit a "public outdoor place" for the purposes of open air recreation." The definition of a “public outdoor place” for this purpose does not include privately owned land to which the general public does not have access.