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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make it his policy to extend the protection granted to playing fields to any community leisure facilities, by ensuring that Sport England must be consulted before the sale of any such facility; and if he will ensure that Sport England is sufficiently resourced to carry out that role effectively.

Government recognises the important contribution that opportunities for sport and recreation make to the health and wellbeing of communities. Planning policies should be based on robust and up-to-date assessments of community needs. Any change of policy to allow Sport England (or any other public body) to have similar responsibilities for community leisure facilities, as it does for playing fields, would be a matter for DCLG.