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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of sport-based diversionary activity in preventing anti-social behaviour among young people.

Sport can be a uniquely powerful tool to engage at-risk young people.

The Government, through its arm’s-length body for grassroots sport, Sport England, invests in community-level sport and physical activity projects across the country. This includes investing in organisations like StreetGames, whose "doorstop approach” to sport has been evaluated as effective in reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour, alongside improving health and boosting educational attainment and employability.