Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Blenkinsop Excerpts

Thursday 13th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words, and I regret that must I disagree with him. I think the licence fee settlement was excellent for the BBC. It provides funding certainty until 2017, which no other media company in this country can boast.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

6. What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the protection of school playing fields.

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

School playing fields fall under the departmental responsibility of the Department for Education, but my Department is in regular contact with it over a range of issues relating to sport. For the first time, the Places People Play initiative has a specific programme for safeguarding and enhancing playing fields, and is operated in partnership with Fields in Trust.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

I thank the Minister for his reply, but does he agree that there is a lack of local accountability in the selling of academy school fields, which should be subject to the same protection as those belonging to maintained schools?

[Hugh Robertson]

In a sense, yes. After the Olympics, anybody who is interested in or involved with sport will want to ensure that those opportunities are available to as many people as possible. That said, the point of academies is that they enjoy freedom from central control and set their agenda as they wish. The issue is less about playing fields than about the provision of sports facilities. The key point is to build more 3G pitches, from which schools get 90 hours of use, as against four for an old grass pitch.