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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2016 to Question 55347, on sports: equality, if she will promote the application of similar measures more generally throughout sport to address diversity at the top.

The government strategy for sport and physical activity ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for An Active Nation’ highlights the importance of diversity in senior leadership. On 31 October this year Sport England and UK Sport published a new Code for Sports Governance, fulfilling an action set out in Sporting Future. The code requires each funded organisation to adopt a target of a minimum of 30% of each gender on its board, demonstrate a strong commitment to achieving greater diversity on its board, identify actions to support diversity targets and publish information on fostering diversity including annual updates on progress. The governance code will be mandatory for all sports bodies seeking public funding in the next funding period.

Sport England and UK Sport are also working with funded National Governing Bodies and partners to ensure good practice is adhered to when constructing job descriptions and writing adverts, and are working with expert organisations such as Sporting Equals and Women in Sport to ensure a more diverse range of people are aware of vacancies within the sector as they arise.