The Sport and Recreation Alliance – the independent voice for sport and recreation – has received a response from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) regarding the media speculation around its possible abolition.
Following a series of reports suggesting that the DCMS would be dismantled following the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Alliance’s chair, Andy Reed, swiftly wrote to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt MP, asking for clarification on his department's future.
Andy Reed said: “For obvious reasons, the Sport and Recreation Alliance would be set against moving responsibility for sports policy to a department where it was a secondary concern or a tool to achieve a single, specific aim.
"We firmly believe that given its proven effectiveness in contributing to a wide range of public policy objectives – like crime reduction, higher educational attainment and improved social cohesion, for example – shoehorning sport into a department where primacy lies elsewhere would do it, and the nation, a great disservice.
Hugh Robertson MP has now provided reassuring clarification, stating in his response letter that:
“I hope you have now seen that the department and Number 10 quickly dismissed the story….it is completely without foundation."
The Sport and Recreation Alliance celebrated its 90th anniversary at St James’s Palace, where members also gathered for the organisation’s 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM), chaired by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
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Today’s publication of the Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report sets out a series of wide ranging recommendations for reform of the national curriculum and in particular to the teaching of physical education (PE) and dance in schools.
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As we mark National Inclusion Week, we spotlight our member Women in Sport, a charity that for over 40 years has been dedicated to understanding and breaking down the barriers that hold girls and women back from the opportunities and lifelong benefits of sport and activity.
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