Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Hughes and Hugh Robertson

Tuesday 3rd December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)]

Will Ministers take up with the Government of Bangladesh the increasing concerns of Bangladeshis in this country, and others, about the intimidation, threats, violence and persecution of minorities, both political and faith?

[Hugh Robertson]

I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that the answer to that is yes. As he knows, the next round of Bangladeshi parliamentary elections is scheduled for 5 January, and my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary spoke to the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh in November to find an agreeable way to run those elections—in a fair, free and satisfactory fashion.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Hughes and Hugh Robertson

Thursday 20th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)]

1. What steps she is taking to maintain existing levels of girls’ participation in sport.

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

In a guest appearance—figures released last week show that 6.785 million women played sport once a week, an increase of more than half a million since we won the bid in 2005. Through Sport England, the Government have awarded £1.7 million to the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation to help sports understand which groups of women are most likely to take up sport, and where sport should focus effort to best advantage. Women’s participation in sport is one of the key priorities of my right hon. Friend the Minister for Women and Equalities.

[Simon Hughes]

Having visited the very good girls’ secondary schools and mixed secondary schools in my constituency, it seems that the crucial time to encourage young women to continue with sport and physical activity is the year leading up to 16, when they might leave school or think of other things. What are the Government doing to make sure that at that stage, they are sold the benefits of staying fit?

[Hugh Robertson]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely correct: the single biggest issue affecting gender-based participation in British sport in the last 20 years has been the post-school drop-out, which is most severe among teenage girls. The Government have sought to address that in the recent round of whole sport plans by concentrating on those in the 14-to-25 age group; by setting up 500 new satellite clubs, which will help to transition girls out of school and into sports clubs; and through the Sport England College Sport Makers, specialists in further education colleges who will help specifically with that drop-off.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Hughes and Hugh Robertson

Thursday 10th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Robertson]

Nobody would pretend that this issue is easy and we all know the economic conditions. As I said, London 2012 has given sport in this country a fantastic launch pad, and a city such a Liverpool—which the hon. Lady represents—is synonymous with sport. My advice would be that the most successful projects I have seen are a combination of local authority funding, private funding and grants from Sport England. If the hon. Lady has projects that she wishes to promote, she should look to Sport England and the Places People Play initiative and see what she can do. I wish her every good fortune in doing that.

[Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)]

8. When the Government plan to announce what further steps they will take in response to the report of the Leveson inquiry.

London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill

Debate between Simon Hughes and Hugh Robertson

Thursday 28th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Robertson]

I absolutely agree, and I thank my right hon. Friend for making that point. As he says, Operation Podium has already started and it will continue as we get closer to the games.

[Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)]

I apologise for missing the beginning of the Minister’s speech, but this is the issue on which I want to ask a question. Can I assume that when the allocation of tickets by ballot is made—and I am one of many hoping to be lucky—the data on who has been allocated tickets, especially large numbers of tickets, will not be made publicly accessible, in order to prevent the abuses that he and others have mentioned? There is a chance that—as with the telephone hacking—people could obtain that information and start illegally reselling tickets. Some assurance about the security of the process would be helpful.

[Hugh Robertson]

I can absolutely give my right hon. Friend those assurances. The firm conducting the ticketing operation was selected precisely because it was able to give those assurances. Nobody wants any breach of security, and the ticketing process has several features—although I do not want to go into details—that will make it extremely difficult for people to operate in that fashion.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Hughes and Hugh Robertson

Monday 26th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

3. What steps he plans to take to increase levels of participation of young people in sport.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Hugh Robertson)]

Since taking office two months ago, the new coalition Government have already taken three steps that will increase participation by young people in sport. The first step is to increase sport’s share of national lottery funding to 20%, which was envisaged when the lottery was set up; the second is that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has announced plans for a new Olympic-style school sport competition; and the third is that we have asked sport’s national governing bodies to increase to 30% the amount of money that they commit to grass-roots sport from their broadcasting deals.

[Simon Hughes]

I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for a positive answer. The borough of Lambeth and my local borough have an excellent sports action zone, promoting sport at all ages. Will the Minister take further steps both in the short term to ensure that, now the school holidays have started throughout the UK, all ages are encouraged to get used to doing some sport, and in the medium term to ensure that we train and recruit many more sports coaches throughout the UK?