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 National Sector Partners Group (NSPG) has written to the Prime Minister ahead of next week’s Spending Review to urge the Government to back the sector through a sustained plan for investment and a clear strategy for increasing participation in sport and physical activity.
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Yesterday, the Sport and Recreation Alliance hosted a session of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Sport and Physical Activity, which took the format of a roundtable discussion on the economic value of sport and physical activity.
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This week (12 -18 May) is Mental Health Awareness Week, spotlighting the theme of 'Community'. This focus underscores the profound impact that belonging and collective engagement have on our mental wellbeing.
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