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 welcomes Government’s commitment to investing in community sport, recreation and physical activity, and its recognition of the social and economic value it provides.
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The National Sector Partners Group has issued a joint statement following the announcement of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review today.
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Today Sport England has announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive, Simon Hayes, who will begin the role in September.
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