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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much and what proportion of loans provided to rugby union clubs under government support schemes have been repaid; and if she will provide a breakdown of repayments by club.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and our arm’s-length bodies, Sport England and UK Sport, do not provide direct funding to professional rugby union clubs.

Since 2020, DCMS has provided loans to rugby union clubs via the Sport Survival Package (SSP). This package of emergency funding was provided to support organisations who were negatively impacted by Covid-19 restrictions to fulfil their sporting commitments, including Premiership Rugby League and RFU Championship clubs.

SSP loans were distributed to 13 Premiership rugby clubs (total value of £123.81 million) and seven Championship clubs (total value of £4.84 million).

DCMS is not able to comment on repayments of individual borrowers or leagues given the commercial sensitivity.

As well as loans, DCMS provides the majority of support for grassroots rugby through Sport England. Sport England has awarded the Rugby Football Union, the governing body for rugby union in England, £13.86 million for the period 2022-27 as one of Sport England’s long-term system partners to support grassroots rugby union.