Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Richard Graham and Hugh Robertson

Thursday 5th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

1. What recent estimate she has made of the amount of money spent by the national lottery on good causes.

[The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Hugh Robertson)]

Approximately £30 billion has been raised for good causes since John Major’s Government introduced the national lottery in 1994.

[Richard Graham]

I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. Many people across the country will not necessarily know that the huge increase in Sport England funding for sports facilities through the Inspired Facilities fund was generated by the change this Government made to the lottery funding, and I am very grateful for it. Last week, he saw, with me, the huge improvements made at our newly regenerated Gloucester athletics track and the case prepared by the Gloucester rowing club to make to Sport England. Does he agree that both those things will represent a fantastic Olympic legacy for my city?

[Hugh Robertson]

Yes, I do. One of the best things we have done is to raise the amount of money sport receives through the national lottery, from 13.7% when we came to power to 20% now. That has allowed improvements such as the ones my hon. Friend has detailed, and I congratulate him on his leadership in his constituency and the great work being done by volunteers in all those clubs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Richard Graham and Hugh Robertson

Thursday 14th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Robertson]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. Indeed, if we look back over the past 20 years or so, we see that the one thing that nobody has really managed to address has been post-school dropout. We are trying a new approach via the new youth sport strategy, which will be the key component of the next round of whole-sport plans. I very much hope that by linking schools much better to community clubs and putting people into colleges of higher education, which have not been well covered, we will tackle the problem in the next cycle.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

rose—

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[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

15. What recent discussions he has had on nominating a new sport for the next Olympics.

[The Minister for Sport and the Olympics (Hugh Robertson)]

This is a matter for the International Olympic Committee, but I am aware of the ambitions of a number of sports. London 2012 will feature 26 sports in its programme. That will rise to 28 for Rio 2016, when golf and rugby sevens are added to the mix. Decisions about the 2020 summer games will be taken by the IOC in 2013.

[Richard Graham]

The Minister knows of one sport that is played by more than half a million people in this country and many millions worldwide, on more than 50,000 courts, and in which the current men’s world champion is from this country: squash. Does he agree that the case for squash is strong and that it should be supported as much as possible? Will he meet me, UK Sport and the World Squash Federation, which is headquartered here in London? Lastly, will he, and indeed you, Mr Speaker, agree to join a team that I intend to put together—a Lords and Commons squash team—to play squash on world squash day in October this year to support the bid?