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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many artificial football pitches in which locations have been supported by funding from his Department since May 2015.

In the last year, £39 million has been invested across the country on artificial grass pitches in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, London, Manchester, Devon, Essex, Staffordshire, West Riding, Middlesex, Wiltshire, Durham, Liverpool, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, North Riding, Lancashire, Hertfordshire, Birmingham Northumberland, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Dorset, Cumberland and East Riding. Further details on the individual grants awarded are available from the Football Foundation.

The Government is also investing £8 million over the next 4 years in Parklife, to increase the number of full-size publicly accessible artificial grass pitches in England by 50 per cent. The Football Association is matching government funding, with further contributions from the Premier League and Local Authorities in this new £200 million grassroots facilities investment programme.