Oral Answers to Questions
Will Stone Excerpts(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
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Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)
Will Stone (Swindon North) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)
Our national youth strategy was co-produced with young people and has committed to investing over £500 million to ensure young people have somewhere to go, something to do and someone who cares. Access to youth activities is a key part of that.
Stephanie Peacock
The Government recognise that grassroots facilities are at the heart of communities up and down the country, which is why we have committed £400 million to transform grassroots facilities across the UK. I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss how we will be rolling that out. We recognise that too many children and young people are less active than they should be, which is why we have campaigns such as “Let’s Move!”, which aims to support children to enjoy being active in sport, play and everyday movement. I was pleased to see one of those sessions in action myself before Christmas.
Will Stone
This week I met Paul Skivington from the UK Para jiu-jitsu team. Paul, who lost his leg in a motorbike accident, has been very active in inspiring the country by competing on the world stage of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Paul wants to get more disabled children involved in sports. What are the Government doing to incentivise more young disabled people to take part in sports, especially Brazilian jiu-jitsu?
Stephanie Peacock
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this important point. Everyone should have the opportunity to play sport and be physically active. We are committed to tackling persistent inequalities, especially for disabled people, an aim that is reinforced by Uniting the Movement, the 10-year strategy of our arm’s length body, Sport England. It ensures that its programmes directly impact disabled people through partnerships with a range of both disability and martial arts organisations and initiatives such as We Are Undefeatable, a campaign that supports the 15 million people who live with one or more long-term health condition in England to get active. I met Activity Alliance to discuss this issue a few months ago, and would be delighted to discuss it with my hon. Friend.
Market Towns: Cultural Heritage
Will Stone Excerpts(11 months ago)
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Will Stone (Swindon North) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Southend East and Rochford (Mr Alaba) for bringing forward this debate. When people think of Swindon North they do not necessarily think of market towns, but my constituency happens to have one of the most beautiful market towns in the country. Some people call it “the gateway to the Cotswolds”; I prefer to call it “the entrance to Swindon”. That truly beautiful town is Highworth. I am short on time, but I give a massive thanks to Highworth town council, and mainly to the mayor, Julie, for her hard work in keeping its cultural heritage.
I want to talk about the importance of development. Although I welcome Labour’s plan to build 1.5 million houses, I am keen that we do that responsibly and ensure that the developments have the infrastructure to support market towns, making them more accessible but not taking away their independence. I thank all the hon. Members who have spoken in this interesting debate. My big ask for the Government is to build those houses responsibly and to support communities.