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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are giving to women’s and girl’s (1) football, and (2) cricket.

We are determined to get more girls and women playing sport, something we set out in our sport strategy, Sporting Future. There are excellent initiatives that already exist to encourage women to take up sport and physical activity. For example Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign has been developed to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability.

Sport England are investing in a series of programmes and initiatives to increase participation amongst women and girls in football and cricket. This includes £10m between 2017/21 in the Football Association to help support their aspiration to double the number of women and girls’ affiliated teams to 12,000 by 2020. Sport England are also investing £9m in the England and Wales Cricket Board over between 2017 and 2021, much of which will be used to promote greater participation of women and girls in cricket. This includes a suite of flexible cricket formats to strengthen the pathway from beginner through to performance level, linked to the This Girl Can campaign.

The broadcasting of sporting events such as this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup will continue to showcase women’s sport and inspire the next generation.