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 is taking to close the gender pay gap in sport; and if he will make a statement.

It is important that women and men are recognised and paid equally for doing the same work. I welcome the positive step that has been taken to ensure that all companies in Great Britain with more than 250 employees are required to report their gender pay gap to the Government Equalities Office.

We know there is some work to do to narrow the gender pay gap across the sport sector. Sport England’s workforce strategy for England, “Working in an Active Nation”, highlights the commitment to achieving higher gender diversity in leadership roles on boards in sport. Furthermore the UK Sport and Sport England Code for Sports Governance, which is mandatory and applies to any organisation seeking funding from Sport England or UK Sport, includes a target of at least 30% gender diversity on boards.