Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department has provided to the Rugby Football League in each of the last 10 years; and on what projects that funding has been spent.

Sport England - the arms-length body of government responsible for investing in grassroots sport - made 27 participation and talent investments totalling £54,587,896 in the Rugby Football League (RFL) from 2007-2017. The breakdown of Sport England's four year funding awards for the RFL for 2009-13 and 2013-17 is set out below:

2009-13 - 7 awards totalling £28,031,694

2013-17 - 10 awards totalling £17,893,596

UK Sport - the arms-length body of government responsible for investing in elite sport and major sporting events - awarded up to £500,000 to the RFL as part of the costs of staging the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.

We have committed to investing up to £25 million in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup tournament and associated legacy infrastructure. Up to £15 million of which has been committed to support the staging of the tournament and up to £10 million to legacy infrastructure projects.