Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to increase participation in out-of-school sports clubs.
Sport is a devolved policy area. The national sports councils of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are therefore responsible for delivering the sporting strategies set out by their respective Governments. This response solely relates to the position in England.
DCMS is investing almost £450 million through its 2012-17 Youth and Community strategy through Sport England. One of the key aims of this strategy is to get more young people playing sport regularly. Specific targets for young people have been agreed with each national governing body of sport (NGB).
Further to this, 25 NGBs have targets agreed with Sport England to deliver Satellite Clubs - Sport England’s £49 million programme that brings community sports clubs into schools and colleges. Every secondary school in England will be offered the chance to host a satellite club by 2017 and there are already over 3,600 satellite clubs up and running (including nearly 500 which are only for girls) with almost 150,000 young people taking part.