Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take, alongside sporting bodies and associations, to tackle racism in cricket.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Racism has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. The Government is committed to working with our arm’s-length bodies, sporting bodies and sector partners to ensure sport does all it can to tackle racism and all forms of discrimination.
We welcome the action the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is taking to tackle racism in cricket. We will continue to monitor its actions, including the implementation of the ECB’s plan for diversity and inclusion. A recent update indicates that the ECB is continuing to deliver on its commitments on improved diversity in governance, the development of an anti-discrimination unit, and its review of crowd management alongside the First Class Counties and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority. The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, established by the ECB in March 2021, is also currently in the process of reviewing the evidence to form an independent report with suggested recommendations on how to tackle discrimination and achieve equity in cricket.
Funding from our arm’s-length body for grassroot sport, Sport England, is explicitly linked to the development and implementation of robust diversity and inclusion policies and plans. This has been made clear to the ECB, which has responded positively and constructively.
We will continue to liaise with the cricket authorities on tackling racism and hold them to account on this.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of ethnic minority cricket officials in (a) England and (b) Wales.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The national governing body for cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) assesses trends in representation in the sport. This includes the level of representation of African, Caribbean and Asian coaches, umpires and match officials. The Department does not have these figures.
The ECB have acknowledged there remains an under-representation of Black or South Asian heritage officials despite an increase in the proportion of umpires from ethnically diverse backgrounds on the National Panel last year. Following an independent Officiating Review in 2021, the ECB have committed to four ambitions focusing on equity of opportunity, inspiring the next generation, developing a diverse network that reflects society and promoting a culture of inclusivity and fairness.
We welcome the ECB’s promise to take meaningful action, including the creation of a diverse Officiating Oversight Panel, which met in October 2021, to challenge and question all decisions relating to selection, appointments, practices and processes across the department. They have also developed a targeted coaching and mentoring programme that focuses on supporting aspiring umpires from diverse backgrounds.
The updated Code for Sports Governance requires sports organisations that receive significant public funding, including the ECB, to agree a diversity and inclusion action plan with Sport England and/or UK Sport, which will be published and updated annually. The Government and our arm’s length bodies will continue to monitor and liaise with the cricket authorities on improving diversity and inclusion at all levels.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2022 to Question 19721 on Cricket: Racial Discrimination, how much funding the Government has allocated to the England and Wales Cricket Board in the financial years (a) 2018-2019, (b) 2019-2020, (c) 2020-2021, (d) 2021-2022 and (e) so far in 2022-2023.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government does not provide direct funding to the England and Wales Cricket Board. All funding of sport National Governing Bodies is delivered by our Arm’s Length Bodies. In this case that is Sport England.
Since 2018 Sport England have allocated £7,899,140 to the England and Wales Cricket Board: £1.49 million in 2018/19; £1 million in 2019/20; £3,206,640 in 2020/21; and £2,202,500 in 2021/22. Figures for 2022-23 have not yet been published.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the level of racism in cricket in England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is clear that racism has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket issued a call for evidence following the Azeem Rafiq incident at Yorkshire County Cricket Club last year. This received over 4000 responses which indicates that the level of racism in cricket is currently far too high.
The Commission also opened a second call for evidence in March 2022 to seek more detailed views on a number of areas and is currently reviewing the evidence to form an independent report with suggested recommendations to tackle racism and discrimination in cricket.
We welcome the steps taken so far by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) but expect to see clear and sustained evidence of cultural change across the sport resulting from these actions. A recent update indicates tangible progress on a number of commitments; including the county cricket network having achieved significant progress to increase Board diversity in line with the targets of 30% female representation and locally representative ethnicity.
It has been made clear to the ECB, who have responded positively and constructively, that public funding is explicitly linked to the development and implementation of robust diversity and inclusion policies and plans.
The Government and our arm’s length bodies will continue to liaise with the cricket authorities on tackling racism and hold them to account on this.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the £300 million summer sports recovery package, announced in 2021, has been delivered to cricket organisations; and which organisations have received that funding.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Sport Survival Package launched in November 2020 to ensure sport organisations survive the period of coronavirus restrictions which prevented spectators from attending spectator sport events. Whilst coronavirus restrictions were in place, we engaged with the whole sport sector, including the England and Wales Cricket Board as cricket’s national governing body, to understand the evolving challenges and support recovery. No cricket organisations applied for funding through the package and therefore did not receive Survival Package support. Every eligible organisation who could demonstrate an urgent financial need in alignment with the fund criteria received support from the package.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of diversity in the administration of English cricket; and what plans they have to support or require the England and Wales Cricket Board to increase levels of diversity as a condition of receipt of future public funding.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Racism has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. The Government is committed to ensuring sport does all it can to tackle racism and all forms of discrimination.
The Government believes that sports should be given every opportunity to run their own affairs wherever possible. However, as the Minister for Sport stated in front of the DCMS Select Committee on 18 November, if other actions do not result in meaningful change, independent regulation remains an option that the Government would consider as part of a range of wider measures to address governance and regulation.
We welcome the recent action on tackling racism in cricket from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). We will continue to monitor its actions, including the implementation of the ECB’s new plan for diversity and inclusion. One of the key commitments of this plan is to improve diversity in leadership and governance positions across cricket.
Sport England funding is explicitly linked to the development and implementation of robust diversity and inclusion policies and plans. This has been made clear to the ECB, who have responded positively and constructively.
The Government will continue to liaise with the cricket authorities on tackling racism and hold them to account on this.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce an independent regulator for cricket to oversee the progress the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) makes to tackle racism in that sport.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Racism has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. The Government is committed to ensuring sport does all it can to tackle racism and all forms of discrimination.
The Government believes that sports should be given every opportunity to run their own affairs wherever possible. However, as the Minister for Sport stated in front of the DCMS Select Committee on 18 November, if other actions do not result in meaningful change, independent regulation remains an option that the Government would consider as part of a range of wider measures to address governance and regulation.
We welcome the recent action on tackling racism in cricket from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). We will continue to monitor its actions, including the implementation of the ECB’s new plan for diversity and inclusion. One of the key commitments of this plan is to improve diversity in leadership and governance positions across cricket.
Sport England funding is explicitly linked to the development and implementation of robust diversity and inclusion policies and plans. This has been made clear to the ECB, who have responded positively and constructively.
The Government will continue to liaise with the cricket authorities on tackling racism and hold them to account on this.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take, alongside sporting bodies and associations, to tackle racism in cricket.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Racism has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. The Government is committed to ensuring that sports bodies do all they can to tackle racism and all forms of discrimination.
In December 2021 DCMS’s arm’s-length bodies UK Sport and Sport England published an updated version of the Code for Sport Governance. As part of this, sports at Tier Three of the Code are required to publish an annual diversity and inclusion action plan with Sport England and/or UK Sport.
Sport England, UK Sport, and the other sports councils across the UK also published the results of a detailed, independent review into tackling racism and racial inequality in sport. In December 2021, the five Sports Councils released a joint update outlining the current actions being taken to address the commitments.
The Government welcomes the recent developments from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC). We will continue to monitor their actions, including the implementation of the ECB’s new plan for diversity and inclusion and YCCC’s pledge to work with it on a game-wide diversity and inclusion action plan.
The Government will continue to liaise with the cricket authorities on tackling racism and hold them to account on this. We reserve the right to take further measures if necessary.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the prevalence of Islamophobia in organised sport.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Recent reports of racism in cricket have highlighted that discrimination, including anti-Muslim hatred, is sadly too prevalent within sport. There can be no place for it. The Government expects sports bodies to take robust action to tackle discrimination whenever and wherever it occurs.
Earlier this year UK Sport, Sport England and the other UK sports councils published reports into racism and racial inequalities in sport, including a report capturing people’s lived experiences of racism in sport. The sports councils have agreed some initial overarching commitments, and are working to develop their own action plans to further deliver on these commitments.
This is in addition to steps such as the forthcoming update of UK Sport and Sport England’s Code for Sports Governance, which will place an increased focus on diversity in decision making and ensuring that sports organisations reflect the communities they serve. Sports receiving the most funding will be required to agree a diversity and inclusion action plan with Sport England and UK Sport, which will be published and updated annually.
Getting faith groups more involved in sport and activity is also a key part of Sport England’s 10-year strategy “Uniting the Movement”, published earlier this year. Through this strategy Sport England have committed to providing opportunities to people and communities that have traditionally been left behind and helping to remove the barriers to activity.
The Government, and our sports councils, are committed to making sure sport is inclusive for everyone. Where action taken by sports does not go far enough, the government is prepared to step in.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will provide (a) funding and (b) support to African, Caribbean and Asian cricket associations to tackle exclusion and inequality in all aspects of the game, particularly under representation among umpires, coaches and match officials.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The national governing body for cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) assesses trends in representation in the sport. This includes the level of representation of African, Caribbean and Asian coaches, umpires and match officials. The Government and Sport England is committed to increasing diversity and inclusion across all sport and physical activity.
The ECB developed the African-Caribbean Engagement Programme (ACE) in 2020 to address a 75% decline in cricket participation by members of the Black community in cricket. It has now been established as an independent charity and received £540,000 in funding from Sport England and a grant from the ECB that has allowed a programme to be launched in Birmingham in 2021.
The ECB launched its South Asian Action Plan in 2018, also funded by Sport England. This focuses on increasing racial diversity and opening up access to cricket, including facilities and delivery of bespoke formats of the sport for the community’s needs. After the success of the first investment of £1 million, this has recently been awarded an additional £1 million for the next 2 years.
The report on ‘Racial equality in cricket’ identified a range of actions for the ECB. Sport England provides support, guidance and funding to help national governing bodies, including the ECB, to help them increase diversity and inclusion in their organisations.
There is still more to do, however, and we will continue to liaise with the ECB to ensure this issue is tackled effectively, and that recommendations from the newly established Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, are implemented.