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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has (a) made an assessment of the current classification of deaf sport within UK sporting-funding frameworks, (b) what consideration her Department has given to the disparity in funding provided to Deaflympic athletes compared with Paralympic athletes, and (c) what steps she is taking to ensure that deaf athletes are not systematically overlooked in future funding decisions.

The Government is dedicated to making sport across the country accessible and inclusive for everyone, including d/Deaf people.

Sport England are exploring a series of talent pilots for deaf athletes. These pilots will see Sport England, National Governing Bodies, and UK Deaf Sport working together to explore issues around accessibility and suggest potential solutions. Sport England has also awarded UK Deaf Sport £150,000 to fund a specialist Talent Inclusion post to further the work of the pilots.

The Government, through the UK Sport grant, supports Olympic and Paralympic success. Beyond this the Government does not provide additional funding to performance sport, in line with our approach to a great many other areas of individual sporting performance.