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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 11 April 2019 (HL Deb, col 585), what "clear, tangible actions" have been delivered to address racist abuse in football, in relation to each of the six areas they identified as needing to be examined further.

Racism or any form of discrimination has no place in football or society, and we must confront this vile behaviour.

In July last year, the football authorities wrote to the government setting out their actions to further tackle discrimination:

• A review of how professional clubs sanction and educate offenders to provide more clarity and consistency.

• A review of FA sanctions for discrimination in the professional and grassroots game.

• Improved steward training, including new modules on recognising and responding to discriminatory behaviour.

• Improved reporting methods to enable fans to quickly and simply make clubs and the authorities aware of concerns or incidents of discrimination.

• Enhance and grow programmes to provide more opportunities for BAME people in coaching, refereeing, management and administrative positions in the sport.

• Further developing schools and community programmes, particularly in promoting inclusion through projects delivered by Premier League and EFL clubs.

There is still more to do: the previous Minister for Sport recently met with the FA and EFL to discuss their progress, and the current Minister for Sport will be calling in all the footballing authorities for a further update about their work on this important issue.