Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Paragraph: 11
The impact of successive lockdowns on activity levels was not as bad as initially feared...
Recommendation
The impact of successive lockdowns on activity levels was not as bad as initially feared but the Committee is concerned about the consequences of the final lockdown from December 2020 onwards which has not yet been covered by an Active Lives survey. The Government and Sport England must renew their efforts on encouraging people back into sport to pre-empt any further drops in participation during ‘Lockdown 3’. We recommend that the Government initiate a sporting equivalent of the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ campaign, entitled ‘Work Out to Help Out’, to incentivise volunteers and participants to get involved, participate in organised sport and support the sporting infrastructure, both in England and across the UK.
Paragraph Reference:
11
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government agrees with the intent behind this recommendation to encourage participation in organised sport, however it believes that the focus should be on allowing exercise and investing heavily to ensure community facilities are there, as a means to do Government Response to Committee’s Fourth Report 3 so. We believe this is the best action in the first instance and will continue to work on campaigns to encourage take-up of sport such as Sport England’s successful This Girl Can campaign. We do not think that a financial incentive to ‘work out’ is needed but will continue to ensure everyone regardless of background can have the opportunity to participate. Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are therefore important tools at our disposal as we seek to combat coronavirus. As such, grassroots sport and activity have been one of our priorities throughout the pandemic : we made sure that people could exercise at least once a day even during the height of the first period of enhanced national restrictions, and we opened up grassroots sport and leisure facilities as soon as it was safe to do so. The Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. On top of wider economic support, the Government has delivered a £100 million support fund for local authority leisure centres to ensure these important facilities remained available once public health restrictions were lifted. The £600 million Sports Survival Package has protected the immediate futures of major spectator sports in England and provided onward benefits to grassroots sports through the RFL and SRU onward community loan schemes. The Government’s Arm’s-Length Body, Sport England has provided £270 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, via a range of funds. To galvanise activity, Sport England created the Join the Movement campaign and this will be continuing as we recover from the pandemic. We are continuing to work with organisations to understand what they need and how we may be able to support them. In addition, the This Girl Can and We Are Undefeatable campaigns have also been running throughout Covid to support less active groups to be active. The Department for Health and Social Care has also announced it will run a pilot scheme to explore what role incentives can play in helping encourage people to make healthier choices. Inspired by international examples such as the national programme in Singapore, the pilot will use financial incentives to support people to move more and eat better, and will launch in January 2022.