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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to take steps to help fund the repair and reopening of Dewsbury Sports Centre.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities which are great spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities.

The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure facilities lies at local authority level. We share your ambition to ensure that young people in Dewsbury get the opportunities to benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities. The Government encourages local authorities to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities.

We recognise that grassroots facilities are at the heart of communities up and down the country and are acting to support more people to get active wherever they live. On 21 March we announced £100 million funding to be delivered through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, supporting high-quality, inclusive facilities across the UK.