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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to tackle racism and discrimination in cricket following the report into allegations of racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Racism has no place in cricket, sport, or society at large. The government welcomes the firm action taken so far by the England Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in stripping Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) of its ability to host international matches and commissioning a full review of the governance structures in place at the YCCC. We urge the ECB to continue to look at this with the utmost scrutiny and take further action where needed to stamp out racism in the game.

The government has already made clear its commitment to tackling racism and all forms of discrimination in sport, as set out in the sport and physical activity strategy ‘Sporting Future’.

We continue to work closely with our arm’s length bodies, national governing bodies of sport and sector partners to tackle racism and discrimination in sport. Sport England, UK Sport and the other home nations’ sports councils recently published the results of a detailed, independent review into tackling racism and racial inequality in sport. Each Council is working at pace to develop their own specific action plans to further deliver on diversity and inclusion commitments and address the recommendations from the review.