Rugby: Public Participation

(asked on 4th March 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the (a) Scottish Rugby Union, (b) Irish Rugby Football Union, (c) Welsh Rugby Union and (d) Rugby Football Union on increasing participation rates in rugby union.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 12th March 2020

The Secretary of State and I meet with sports national governing bodies on a regular basis to ensure they are supporting grassroots participation in line with the objectives of the government's Sporting Future strategy. Ministers continue to work with national governing bodies of sport to ensure that the Sporting Future strategy is implemented effectively, and that grassroots participation is supported.

Sport is a devolved matter and therefore support for grassroots sport and physical activity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the respective Home Nations Sports Councils and devolved governments.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is in regular contact with Sport England, which is the organisation directly responsible for investing in and supporting grassroots sport in England. Through Sport England, government is investing £12.6m in the RFU over 2017-21 for its work on participation and supporting talented young athletes. Since 2016, England has invested a further £12.61m in multi-sport projects where rugby union is identified as one of the sports benefitting.

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