Recommendation 26

Sport England increased the number of organisations that it awarded grant funding by six-fold in 2020–21 compared to 2019–20, from 1,666 to 9,538. We asked Sport England how increasing the number of grant recipients will help improve participation in sport 38 Q 35 ; C&AG’s report, paras 9, 1.16, 3.10 39 C&AG’s Report, para 3.9 40 Q 37 41 Q 17 42 Q 36 43 Q 38 44 Q 34 Grassroots participation in sport and physical activity 17 and physical activity. Sport England told us funding provided during the pandemic was to help the sector survive, it was not about progression of activity rates. It said it could not prove what benefit this funding has had, but could demonstrate what harm would have been caused without the funding45.