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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to assess the effect of concussion on athletes’ mental health.

The 2015 government sport strategy, Sporting Future highlighted the importance of welfare and well-being in sport. Baroness Tanni Grey-Thomson’s subsequent Duty of Care report, published in April 2017 made recommendations around the treatment of concussion and the duties that national governing bodies have regarding athletes’ physical and mental health.

Sport National Governing Bodies (NGBs) are responsible for the regulation of their sport and for ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to protect participants from harm, including serious injuries.

In March 2018 DCMS published a mental health and elite sport action plan which sets out some key areas for further work around the clarity of support available, sharing of best practice across the sport sector and improved mental health education and training in sport.