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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what systems her Department has in place to support whistle-blowers who raise allegations of (a) racism and (b) other forms of discrimination (i) within and (ii) against sports governing bodies.

The Government is clear there is no room for racism or any type of discrimination in sport or wider society. National Governing Bodies (NGBs) are responsible for the governance of their sports. We are working closely with our arm’s length bodies, UK Sport and Sport England, and NGBs themselves to ensure discrimination is tackled effectively.

UK Sport and Sport England’s Code for Sport Governance sets out the levels of transparency, accountability and integrity that are required from those organisations in receipt of public funding, this includes having appropriate policies in place. UK Sport provides guidance for sports on whistleblowing and confidential disclosure.

UK Sport launched a new independent disclosure and complaints service pilot called Sport Integrity in May 2022. The pilot will assist athletes, athlete support personnel and NGB staff, within Olympic and Paralympic high-performance programmes, to uphold the highest standards of conduct in their sports. It will provide an independent and confidential reporting line and an independent investigation process to deal with relevant allegations of bullying, harassment, discrimination, or abuse, and to allow sports to take the appropriate disciplinary action as necessary. These services will be made available free of charge to funded NGBs.

In June 2021, UK Sport also announced their commitment to enhancing integrity across sport and will be working closely with all the Sports Councils to ensure that this occurs beyond high performance sport.