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John Mann: The hon. Gentleman's comments have been commendably precise and I am sure that he will want to give a commendably precise answer to my intervention. What advice would he give the leader of Bassetlaw council, whom I am meeting on Monday? In the past few weeks, he has received £2 million from the sell-off of playing fields that schools use. Should all that money be spent on sporting facilities, or should it go into subsidising the general council budget?
Hugh Robertson:
The hon. Gentleman tempts me. Since he has listened to the introduction to my speech, I suspect that he knows where my sympathies lie. However, given that I know nothing about Bassetlaw, the council budget or the facts behind the case, it would be unfair to get off the fence.
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In his winding-up speech, will the Under-Secretary confirm the Government's intention about the sale of school playing fields, and especially deal with the concerns of several hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), who believe that the new regulations will not protect smaller school playing fields? The hon. Lady has appeared in the press about the matter a lot recently.
My second point is the time available to teachers to coach or supervise sport. Once a school has a playing field, the next obvious requirement is for a teacher with the time and expertise to coach the pupils. There is no doubt that many teachers throughout the country give up a great deal of time to coach school sport. All of us would wish to pay tribute to them. However, many peopleI have met them in my constituency on several occasionsfeel so weighed down by the burden of bureaucracy that they are unable to free up more of their time to coach school sport. In a recent poll, 92 per cent. of teachers believed that the amount of red tape that they faced reduced the time available for preparing lessons. If that applies to academic work, it is easy to appreciate its detrimental effect on school sport. The Under-Secretary has expertise in the subject and I hope that he can tell hon. Members about his proposals for reducing teacher bureaucracy to free up more time for teachers to coach school sport.
Mr. Cash: Let me take my hon. Friend a little further. Should not the people who are prepared to acquire the necessary skills to teach cricket, rugger and tennis be paid a bonus? One cannot expect people to act entirely out of love; they need an additional incentive. Does my hon. Friend agree with that as a matter of principle?
Hugh Robertson: My hon. Friend is right. I suspect that the time when people did such things purely out of public spirit has passed. We need concrete proposals and firm incentives.
Mr. Truswell: We are listening to the hon. Gentleman's pious comments, but did not the Government that his party formed create the backlash from teachers in the dispute about teacher contracts? Did not choking off revenue and capital and alienating teachers help to dig the grave for school sports? The Government are trying to get us out of that predicament.
Hugh Robertson: I said a moment ago that I believed that there was little point in a sterile party political debate because the obvious answer to the intervention is that the Labour Government have been in power for seven yearsnearly two terms. Ten and 11-year-olds who currently play school sport will have never known this country governed by anything other than a Labour Government. The Government have had ample time to put the matter right.
My third point is about the compensation culture. A plethora of rules and regulations governs almost every aspect of every game. It is regrettable that parents are all too quick to sue if something goes wrong. I shall give two recent examples. First, the regulations that came
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into effect on 1 May this year that prevent an adult from taking more than two children into public swimming baths
Mr. Andy Reed (Loughborough) (Lab/Co-op) rose
Hugh Robertson: I knew that the hon. Gentleman would want to intervene at that point.
Mr. Reed: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Only today, I received a letter on this matter from the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management, which is based in my constituency. I have raised the issue with my local authority, as I have two young children, and we are often unable to take them to the local swimming pool. I have received reassurances that the guidelines are very old, and that there is flexibility within them. I have arranged a meeting with the institute to see whether it can reissue the guidelines to remove this ridiculous anomaly, which makes it very difficult for families to take young children swimming if only one parent is available.
Hugh Robertson: The hon. Gentleman and I discussed this issue in the Lobby some weeks ago, and I am delighted to hear what he says. He will also be aware that we raised it at Department for Culture, Media and Sport questions three weeks ago, and that I have written to the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills about it. The Minister was extremely helpful and promised that he would take the matter up, which I imagine will help us to get a response.
A further example of a ridiculous situation involved a cricket match between two teams of 12-year-olds that took place this summer. Every 12-year-old who plays cricket nowadays has to wrap himself up in a helmet, despite the fact that hardly any 12-year-olds have the physical strength to bounce a ball head-high in a game of cricket. As a result, six of the players on one side were run out when the player at the far end could not hear the call because he was wearing a helmet. I cannot believe that that is in any way defensible.
My hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier) recently introduced a private Member's Bill offering protection to teachers who take children away for adventure training. That idea has now been adopted by my party in the form of a teacher protection Bill that would give teachers protection from prosecution unless there was an unambiguous case of clear negligence. I hope that the Government will look at that issue.
I would like to pay tribute once again to all those who do so much to encourage sport in schools. It would, however, be wrong to conclude that everything in the garden is rosy. I hope that the Minister will be able to address the five points that I have raised. First, will the Government introduce proposals to strengthen and encourage the key link between clubs and schools? Secondly, will the remaining £741.5 millionor whatever the figure isof lottery money allocated for school sport be rapidly distributed? It really is a sad state of affairs that only £8.5 million has been distributed thus far. Thirdly, will the Minister address the question of school playing fields, and particularly the concerns of the hon. Member for Vauxhall? Fourthly, will he outline
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the concrete steps that the Government are going to take to cut teacher bureaucracy and free up more teacher time for sport? Fifthly, will he address the question of legal protection?
School sport is almost universally a good thing. We would all agree on that. It is vital for us, as politicianswhichever side of the House we are onto create the conditions in which it can flourish.
Mr. Paul Truswell (Pudsey) (Lab): It has already been noted that this is a crucial debate, and I do not intend to reiterate why sport is a good thing. The fact that it is carries the consensus of the whole House. It worries me, however, that levels of physical activity in Yorkshire and the Humber are, at 30.4 per cent., lower than the national average, and that only 28.3 per cent. of our region's adults take enough physical activity to benefit their health.
The other crucial statistic that concerns me is the investment per person in sport. In this country, it is £21; in Germany, it is £30; in Australia, it is £51; in Canada, it is £76; and in France, £112. We have a long way to go. I do not want to engage in a party-political knockabout on this issue, but we have heard nothing from the Opposition about what exactly they would do in terms of investing in sport. The Government's PE, school sport and club links programme, and the accompanying £454 million, represent a brilliant start to addressing this challenge. What is most daunting, however, is the fact that so many different strands have to come together to haul school sport out of the doldrums into which it has fallen over many years.
Two specialist sports colleges serve all the schools in my constituency: St. Mary's comprehensive school, Menston, and Priesthorpe high school in Pudsey. They are highly valued for the way in which they are cascading their expertise and support to more than 70 primary schools and 10 high schools. They deserve credit, but this Government also deserve credit for having set them up.
There are many positives to report and I shall sprint through some of the headlines from the monitoring report:
"Much improved quality of teaching and learning in PE, which are reflected in PE department results . . . huge expansion of activities provided for students out of school hours . . . large increases in uptake of exam courses, leadership courses, and post 16 sport related qualifications . . . massive improvement in partnership working between schoolsboth primary and secondaryand a willingness to share expertise . . . and greater and more positive links with local sports clubsimproved training for volunteers has led to better quality of provision within the clubs for young people."
Unfortunately, as with everything in life, there are also negatives. These include poor facilities, especially outdoors, and lack of access to other facilities. As the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Hugh Robertson) said, we need to ensure that the resources that are available are effectively targeted in support of specialist colleges and school sport partnerships.
It is significant that very few of the high schools in my constituencyI am sure that it is also true of many othershave decent cricket pitches. The best school
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facilities, not to mention coaching, are invariably found in the private sector. It cannot be a coincidence that private schools are disproportionately visible at representative level in sports such as cricket.
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