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 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.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what funding is available for (a) rugby, (b) basketball and other sports clubs to help them attain international recognition and host international matches.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
UK Sport, an Arm's Length Body of DCMS, works with National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and other partners to help them build strong and positive relationships with their respective International Federations (IFs) and other national and international sporting bodies.
To do this, investment is prioritised to support International Relations strategies for those sports that receive UK Sport World Class Programme funding and/or have an agreed Major Events hosting target. UK Sport also provides limited investment to those sports which fall just outside of its World Class Programme funding. These include fencing, badminton, goalball, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby.
The Government has recently confirmed a unique funding support package for British Basketball to help support GB athletes to continue to compete on the world stage in order to inspire communities to engage positively in sport activity. Routed through UK Sport, an investment of £195,000 will be provided to ensure GB athletes can compete at important World Cup qualifying games, which they are hosting in June and July. A further £305,000 has been ring-fenced to enable the GB men’s and women’s senior teams to fulfil further international competition commitments in 2018/19. However, this will only be released if British Basketball can demonstrate a sustainable financial plan to support its athletes going forward.
UK Sport has a Major Events programme that invests around £5m a year of national lottery funding to secure and stage international sports events including World Championships, European Championships and top level World Series events in the UK. UK Sport has not provided any Major Event funding to basketball or rugby union over the same period. DCMS funding has been routed via UK Sport to provide rugby league with support for the 2013 and 2021 World Cups:
2013: £500k
2021: up to £15m
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has had discussions with the Rugby Football League on women's rugby league.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
I have regular discussions with national governing bodies of sport, including the Rugby Football League (RFL), on a range of issues including women's rugby league. I recently wrote to the Chief Executive of RFL to outline the progress made in women’s sport and make clear that I am keen that they continue to improve investment in women's rugby league.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
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 the Rugby Football League in each of the last 10 years; and on what projects that funding has been spent.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Sport England - the arms-length body of government responsible for investing in grassroots sport - made 27 participation and talent investments totalling £54,587,896 in the Rugby Football League (RFL) from 2007-2017. The breakdown of Sport England's four year funding awards for the RFL for 2009-13 and 2013-17 is set out below:
2009-13 - 7 awards totalling £28,031,694
2013-17 - 10 awards totalling £17,893,596
UK Sport - the arms-length body of government responsible for investing in elite sport and major sporting events - awarded up to £500,000 to the RFL as part of the costs of staging the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.
We have committed to investing up to £25 million in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup tournament and associated legacy infrastructure. Up to £15 million of which has been committed to support the staging of the tournament and up to £10 million to legacy infrastructure projects.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department supports projects in football to tackle anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
There is no place for discrimination of any kind in sport, at any level. I receive regular updates on English football’s Inclusion & Anti-Discrimination Action Plan, which details the work undertaken by the football authorities, clubs, County Football Associations and campaign groups to tackle all forms of discrimination and ensure the game is open and welcoming to everyone at all levels.
We are fully appreciative of the efforts football and other sports have made over a number of years to tackle discrimination. For example football and rugby union bodies, including the Premier League, the Football Association, the English Football League, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union, all supported Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign to show support for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGB&T) players and fans, as part of which players and officials wore rainbow-coloured laces and armbands.
My Department is also supportive of the Home Office's recent work in partnership with Kick It Out to develop guidance on tackling anti-Muslim hatred and also on initiatives related to LGB&T hate crime. This was outlined in ‘Action Against Hate', the government’s plan for tackling hate crime, published in July 2016. It builds on Kick It Out's previous work with the Community Security Trust and Maccabi GB on reporting anti-Semitism in football through guidance to all professional clubs and managers of stadia.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the governing bodies of sports other than football about meeting disabled access guidelines at sports stadia.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Ministerial meetings have taken place with the Rugby Football Union and at official level with the Rugby Union Premier League on accessibility. Ministers are aware that there is both good and bad practice on stadium accessibility across a range of other sports. Ministers expect all sports, and all clubs, whose grounds do not make the reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabled spectators as set out in the Equality Act 2010 to take action to fulfil this legal obligation.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.256 of Budget 2016, what meetings (a) he and (b) his officials have had with the Department of Health regarding the UK's bid to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As stated in Spending Review 15 the government supports the ambition to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in the Northern Powerhouse.
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.256 of Budget 2016, what meetings (a) he and (b) his officials have had with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on supporting the UK's bid to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As stated in Spending Review 15 the government supports the ambition to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in the Northern Powerhouse.
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Northern Powerhouse strategy will include his pledge in paragraph 2.256 of Budget 2016 to support the UK's bid for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As stated in Spending Review 15 the government supports the ambition to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in the Northern Powerhouse.
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.256 of Budget 2016, what meetings (a) he and (b) his officials have had with the Rugby Football League on his support for the UK's bid to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As stated in Spending Review 15 the government supports the ambition to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in the Northern Powerhouse.
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel