Asked by: Lord Hoyle (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial support they intend to provide to ensure the long-term future of Rugby League.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government announced on 30 April that the Rugby Football League (RFL) will receive a £16 million cash injection to safeguard the immediate future of the sport for the communities it serves.
This emergency loan will help the sport deal with the extreme financial impact of the coronavirus outbreak while the season remains suspended, due to social distancing measures.
It comes ahead of England hosting the Rugby League World Cup next year, which will see the men's, women's and wheelchair games come together for a world first on the sport's biggest stage. The Government’s manifesto included a commitment to delivering a successful tournament, with significant financial support already provided.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Six Nations and Rugby Authorities to ensure that Welsh rugby games will continue to be broadcast in the Welsh language.
Answered by John Whittingdale
I have not had any discussions with Six Nations or any Rugby Authorities regarding the broadcasting of rugby games in the Welsh Language.
The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final, the Rugby World Cup Final and other games in the Rugby World Cup, and the Six Nations Rugby tournament are all included on the listed events regime, which ensures availability of live or delayed coverage respectively for qualifying free to air channels.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of rugby league in England and Wales.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Data from Sport England’s Active Lives Adults and Children and Young People Surveys indicates that:
Through Sport England, since 2017, government has to date invested nearly £11m in grassroots rugby league, including investment in the Rugby Football League Ltd, together with investment in specific community rugby league projects.
Over this time period, Sport England has invested a further £9.1m in multi-sport projects where rugby league is one of the sports benefitting.
The government is investing up to £15m towards the hosting of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, and up to £10m in grassroots facilities to help drive a legacy from the event.
Sport is a devolved matter and Sport Wales has responsibility for supporting grassroots rugby league in Wales.
Asked by: Lord Caine (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of The Rugby League Dividend report, published by the Rugby Football League on 22 August 2019, on the economic and social impact of rugby league in disadvantaged communities and the role of sport in promoting social mobility.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government welcomes the RFL’s Dividend Report which demonstrates the valuable contribution that rugby league can have within communities. Rugby League is a fantastic example of how sport and physical activity can play a leading role in engaging people from every background.
The Government’s Sporting Future strategy is explicit that everyone, regardless of background, sex, age or level of ability should be able to engage in sport and physical activity as participants, spectators and in the workplace, and that sport and physical activity should be valued for the much broader positive impact it can have across a range of physical, social and economic outcomes. The strategy included a specific focus on engaging people from groups in society that have traditionally been underrepresented in sport and physical activity and who have the most to gain from getting more active.
Government is directly supporting rugby league through more than £11m of Sport England investment in the Rugby Football League over 2017-21 and investment of up to £10m in rugby league facilities to help drive a legacy from the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department has provided to grassroots rugby league in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nigel Adams
Through Sport England, government has invested the following in grassroots rugby league in each of the last three years:
These figures include investment in both the Rugby Football League Ltd as the national governing body for the sport, together with investment in specific community rugby league projects.
Over this time period, Sport England has invested a further £9.27m in multi-sport projects where rugby league is one of the sports benefitting.
As part of its support for grassroots rugby league, government is also investing up to £10m in rugby league facilities to help drive a legacy from the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
Asked by: Lord Moynihan (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement the principles of the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Declaration and Framework; and what measures they intend to take in conjunction with UK Sport, Sport England and the UK governing bodies of sport to deliver the objectives set out in that Declaration.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework and Declaration is a welcome voluntary initiative which encourages sports organisations to make their own contribution to the Paris Agreement goal of achieving a low carbon future. It is a matter for individual sports organisations themselves whether they wish to participate in the Framework and sign up to the Declaration. We welcome that both the All England Lawn Tennis Club and The Rugby League World Cup 2021 have done so. The Government is fully committed to the Paris Agreement, and since the year 2000 we have decarbonised our economy more quickly than any other country in the G20.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of women playing professional rugby in the UK that are (a) UK and (b) non-UK citizens; and what the (i) immigration and (b) visa status is of those non-UK citizen rugby players.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) currently contracts 28 fifteen-a-side players and 13 seven-a-side players and these players must have the right to live and work in the UK. Currently there is no central database of professional contracts at club level but the RFU has informed us that a system is being developed.
It is important to note that any female players who are contracted to play professionally in England must be UK Nationals, EU Nationals or have the right to live and work in the UK through a route other than as a professional sportsperson.
There are no female professional rugby league players in the UK.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number of hours per week was that a (a) child and (b) young adult aged 19 to 21 in custody spent playing sport in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information cannot be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service is committed to ensuring that young people in custody are given the opportunity to take part in sport. In October last year, together with a number of leading football organisations, it launched the Twinning Project, in which 40 English Football League and Premier League clubs are working together with prison establishments to help reduce re-offending. The form this work will take will vary depending on the needs of the establishment and the club, but will range from professional coaching qualifications to refereeing and employability skills. There are also plans to extend this approach to include other sports, such as Rugby League.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the hosting of major sporting tournaments in the UK.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the wide-ranging benefits that hosting major sports events can bring.
My Department works closely with UK Sport and the national governing bodies of sport, as well as local, regional and devolved partners, to ensure that the UK successfully bids for and stages a wide range of the world’s biggest sporting events.
The 'Gold Framework' publication sets out the processes as to how the Government and UK Sport work together with our sports bodies in bidding and staging major sports events. Our approach has been successful, with over 100 major international sporting events secured for the UK since the London 2012 Games.
We have a strong programme of events to look forward to, including the Cricket World Cup, Netball World Cup and Cycling Road World Championships this year, the EURO 2020 men's Championships next year, and the EURO women's Championships and Rugby League World Cup in 2021.
We are also looking forward to hosting the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, welcoming thousands of athletes and officials from around the world and showcasing the best that the UK has to offer to a global audience of 1.5 billion.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help promote the sport of women's rugby.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The government’s sport strategy “Sporting Future” highlighted the importance of welfare and wellbeing for everyone participating in elite sport, regardless of age.
In March 2018 I published a mental health and elite sport action plan, based on discussions I held with sportspeople and key stakeholders from across the sport and mental health sectors. The plan sets out a range of actions to improve the support available to athletes, the sharing of best practice across the sport sector, and mental health education and training in sport.
As highlighted in the plan, UK Sport has worked with key agencies to develop a Mental Health Strategy, being implemented during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games cycle (2017-2021). The aim of the strategy is to deliver positive mental health for all people operating in the high performance system, for athletes as well as senior leaders, coaches, practitioners and administrators.
The government’s sport strategy “Sporting Future” highlighted the importance of focusing on groups that are particularly unlikely to take part in sport and physical activity, such as women and girls. It is vital we build on successes like the performance of England at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2017 to inspire more girls and women to get involved in sport. Sport England, government’s arm’s length body for community sport, is funding both the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Rugby Football League (RFL) to build capacity and encourage participation. Both of these national governing bodies have also partnered with Sport England’s “This Girl Can” campaign, to encourage more women and girls to get involved with their sports. Government is also supporting the staging and legacy of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, which will be hosted by England and will bring together the women’s, men’s and wheelchair tournaments for the first time.