Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase the provision of visually impaired sports facilities in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

High-quality, inclusive facilities are essential to increasing participation by under-represented groups, including for visually impaired people.

The Government is also investing £400m over the next four years in new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities, promoting health, wellbeing and community cohesion, while removing the barriers to physical activity for under-represented groups, including people with disabilities.

Sport England, the Government’s arm’s-length body for grassroots sport, works to improve accessibility nationwide, including in Lincolnshire and South Holland and the Deepings. Partnering with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and British Blind Sport, it invested £1 million in the See Sport Differently initiative to remove barriers preventing blind and partially sighted people from participating in physical activity. Additionally, Sport England’s updated Accessible and Inclusive Sports Facilities design guidance provides local authorities, leisure operators, and sports clubs with practical standards to ensure facilities are fully accessible to visually impaired participants.