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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of access to green spaces on the equality of access to sport.

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we have made sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions.

We know that high quality multi-use local green spaces can play a key role as sporting venues and as alternative settings for sport and healthy activity. Last month Sport England published its new strategy Uniting the Movement which sets out their 10 year vision to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity. A key part of the strategy is creating and protecting the local places and spaces that make it easier for people to be active including encouraging walking and cycling.

Last year, Public Health England published Improving Access to Greenspace. The report highlights the strong evidence that regular physical activity supports both individual and community outcomes such as increasing educational attainment, improving self-esteem and reducing social isolation and that greenspace can support higher levels of physical activity.