Minister defends school sport programme
The government has today rejected claims that it has been too slow in spending the £750 million it committed to school and community sport six years ago.
New figures published by the Liberal Democrats show that more than £360 million of the lottery money set aside by Tony Blair in 2000 remains unspent.
The party’s culture spokesman, Don Foster, said about £10 million of this was still not even allocated, warning that ministers “simply haven’t delivered on their promises”.
The figures come just days after the prime minister used a keynote speech to urge people to live healthier lifestyles, including improving their diet and taking more exercise.
However, sports minister Richard Caborn insisted “all the money” pledged in the New Opportunity PE and sport fund had been allocated, and said there were “many reasons” why this had not been spent.
“Building a house or building something, you don’t pay all the money upfront – you actually wait until things have been completed and that’s the right way to do business,” he told Today.
Mr Caborn said the government’s efforts to improve take-up of sport, which included reversing the trend towards the closure of school playing fields, had led to three quarters of pupils now receiving more than two hours of “quality” physical activity a week.
This compared with just a third four years ago, he said, noting: “It’s been one of the biggest movements in schools in terms of getting young people active.”
Mr Foster claimed that as a result of such “inadequate” facilities in schools and community clubs, 70 per cent of young people leaving school this year would stop playing sport.
“The 2012 games offer a golden opportunity for talented children. But without the cash on the ground, our young stars won’t get the chance they deserve to become future Olympic champions,” he warned.
But while Mr Caborn admitted that the lack of school leavers continuing to play sport was a problem, he insisted it was “being tackled”, citing investment of £60 million into sports governing bodies to increase their club facilities.
By the end of the year, 3,000 new community coaches would be encouraging sport among the general population, while the government had also made a manifesto commitment to deliver a quality sports facility within 20 minutes of everyone in the UK.
“We’ve started where we believe it needs to be started, that’s in the schools. We’re now systematically working through that and I think within the next few years you will see a significant fall in that 70 per cent figure,” he added.
