Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the development of football for girls in schools and colleges.

The department does not routinely collect data about which sports pupils participate in during the school day. It is up to schools to decide which sports they offer so that they can meet the needs of their pupils. Factors influencing that decision include the spaces available.

The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Data for the 2022/23 academic year, which was published by Sport England on 7 December 2023, showed a significant increase of four percentage points of girls in Years 1-11 playing football over the last week, compared to the baseline data collected in the 2017/18 academic year.

In December 2023, the government responded to Karen Carney’s 2023 review into the future of women’s football in support of all 10 of the strategic recommendations from the review, further demonstrating the government’s continued commitment to supporting women’s sport at every opportunity. The department is delivering on its commitments around equal access to school sports for girls, and is working with other key organisations to ensure implementation.