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Mr. John Greenway (Ryedale): I can give my hon. Friend a perfect example of how the sportsmatch scheme
is helping the grass-roots of sport. We have a brilliant new clubhouse for Malton and Norton rugby union football club on a new pitch on a new site. Sportsmatch provided £9,000 for floodlights, which was matched by £9,000 from local businesses. It means that in the winter months youngsters can train at rugby as well as the first and second XV.
Mr. Sproat: That is an extremely good example, which could be paralleled around the country. Only last week I was at a sportsmatch reception where scores of groups of young people and the businesses supporting them came together. At the time of "Raising the Game", sportsmatch agreed to set aside about a third of its money for school sports projects. In fact, it has done even better and gave some £1.8 million to about 200 projects last year. Half of that is old money redirected and half is new money from sponsorship.
I do not want to go into great depth about the national lottery although I am happy to go into as much detail as the House wants. However, we know that one of the problems with lottery money for schools is that it is extremely difficult for schools to raise the matching money. The general assumption might be that half of any money must come from outside or local sources and half from the lottery, but it was difficult for schools to find their half for any particular project. That was especially so for some inner-city schools. The Sports Council has said that from this autumn onwards projects for sports in schools can be funded up to 80 per cent. from the lottery. We learn by experience and make adjustments to achieve what we want without tying ourselves down with idiotic, bureaucratic regulations that bear little relation to life as it is lived.
When the report is published, the House will see what we have done about the difficult and contentious issue of the sale of school sports fields. It is my belief that although the Government gave schools the freedom to sell land with the best of intentions--in many cases, those good intentions were fulfilled--one of the unforeseen consequences was that too many acres of school sports grounds were sold. I am not making a party political point, and I do not see the Opposition spokesman jumping to his feet--I hope that he would not. The Government acted with the best intentions and the scheme was taken up by Labour councils which sold as many playing fields as any other councils. We all sometimes do things without foreseeing the consequences, and this was the case with school playing fields.
We put the matter out to consultation, asking whether local authorities, schools and sports organisations would agree that it was sensible that if ever it was proposed to sell school playing fields--there may be occasions when it is the wise thing to do--the Sports Council should be made a statutory consultee so that no school playing field could be sold without the Sports Council being able to say no and, in fact, having a de facto veto on the sale.
Mr. Harry Greenway:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way; I shall not intervene again. I am grateful to the Department of National Heritage and to the Department for Education and Employment for saving Elthorne school sports fields in Ealing from being sold by Ealing Labour council. I have to make a political point because I am also trying to save the Great Western
Mr. Sproat:
My hon. Friend and every other hon. Member can have my help in protecting school playing fields when they deserve to be protected. I congratulate my hon. Friend on the campaigns that he has waged to make sure that school playing fields are retained.
I shall make a few final points about schools. I said earlier that one of the most important things is to ensure that boys and girls who have played sport, been good at it or benefited from it do not suddenly drop out of the sporting scene when they leave school. We are extremely keen to strengthen the links between schools and local sports clubs. The Sports Council has said that, from October onwards, it is setting up a challenge fund of some £2 million for which any school and local sports club can bid to fund any particular project to improve those links. Again, money is being retargeted to worthy aims.
"Raising the Game" said--I am paraphrasing, but I am paraphrasing accurately--that by the year 2000 every young person in this country should have good access to good sports facilities. That is a big and important promise, and it is meant to be; it is being carried out mainly through the lottery.
The Sports Council already has its sports fields register up and running. In September, it will begin a detailed audit of all sports facilities in this country, including inside facilities, outside facilities, synthetic pitches, swimming pools and leisure centres. Projects designed to fill gaps in provision will be funded by the lottery so that by 2000, we shall fulfil the promise that every pupil in every school will have access to good sports facilities.
Mr. Clive Betts (Sheffield, Attercliffe):
Will the Minister explain his proposals a little more, especially in terms of how they will help schools in underprivileged and deprived communities? Such schools will find it impossible to raise even 20 per cent. of matching funding for a project because they are raising what funds they can towards basic school provision. Again, schools in such areas simply cannot find the resources to run the schemes once they have been provided.
Mr. Sproat:
The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. Again, I say quite openly that we learn as we go along. We set the target for the percentage of lottery funding for many projects too low in certain areas. The Sports Council has responded to that problem. I have mentioned that the percentage of lottery money for all schools projects is now 80 per cent. Even as we speak, however, the Sports Council has lowered the percentage to 10 per cent. for schools, especially for inner-city schools which do not have the money. The council can go further; there is no barrier on it and it can set whatever level of matching funding it wants. It will look at each individual case and see whether it should give more in a particular case.
The hon. Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe (Mr. Betts) also made an important point about running costs. We have loosened the rules so that if it is clear that a capital project will involve running costs, they can be built into the money for that project, whether it is the building of a sports centre or a leisure centre. The costs of lighting, paying a janitor or whatever can be built into the project.
The Sports Council will take all those detailed and important matters fully into consideration. An indication of the truth of what I say is how far it is already moving towards fulfilling the need to change the balance between lottery money and outside money. I do not, however, claim that that is the answer in every case and many schools will continue to have difficulty in raising matching funding.
On Tuesday, we shall publish a report by a working group that we set up under the chairmanship of Sir Roger Bannister, the legendary runner. Sir Roger's committee looked at the whole question of sports scholarships at universities. I have described some of the things that we have done to schools because I consider schools the single most important aspect. Sir Roger has looked at best practice in universities, at how they deal with sports scholarships and at what has to be given to sportsmen and women when they come to university, such as special diets and special training facilities. The report goes into detailed points such as the need for accommodation for sports scholars to be relatively near to the sports facilities that they require. It says that they should have guides, advisers and mentors who will take them through their university life.
But--this is a very important point--we are not going down the American road whereby anybody who happens to be good at sport but who may be absolutely thick with an IQ of under 50 gets a sports scholarship. We believe that sports scholars must fulfil the academic side of university life as well as the sporting side. It is an interesting fact, which I cannot say that I realised before I got into all this, that our present sports scholars at university get higher academic degrees than those who are not sports scholars. The discipline that sport imposes works its way through into the academic side. I recommend that hon. Members look at Sir Roger's very detailed, excellent report, for which I thank him most sincerely, when it comes out on Tuesday.
As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North, this month we shall publish the prospectus for the British academy of sport and we shall then invite bids for it. Many groups, ranging from the British Olympic Association to universities and local authorities, have already indicated their interest. Everybody wants to get into the act and I am very pleased about that. Even those who are not part of whatever grouping is eventually chosen for the British academy of sport will have the chance to set up one of the important regional institutes of sport.
We hope that we shall have a decision in November about the British academy of sport. I emphasise that it will be a flagship institution--the best of its kind in the world. It will have the best training facilities, the best coaching facilities, the best sports science, the best sports medicine and the best biomechanics. Residential facilities will be available for athletes who want to stay at the academy and there will be scholarships to keep them there. There will be funding for the coaches. We have looked at all the different institutions in the world that are involved in such work and we have taken the best from each of them. That is what we shall put in our prospectus.
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