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1 Mar 2007 : Column 373WH—continued
Ian Stewart: I am sure that the Minister is aware that Sir Alex Ferguson would be able to help with the training for the hairdryer technique.
Mr. Caborn: I have no doubt that he would, although my hon. Friend and I are probably not too bothered about hairdryers any longer.
My hon. Friend is absolutely right about street games, but informal sports, such as BMX, blading and so on, are also important. Street athletics is also emerging, and Darren Campbell is linking into that. Darren sat on my settee the other day and talked about street athletics. He told a powerful story about how he got into athletics, which saved his life. His closest friend was shot in Moss Side in Manchester. Darren had to make a decision about which road to go down. He believes passionately that that got him out of his previous way of life.
Some hon. Members may have been at the meeting with the north-east consortium when a young lad, David Lacey, addressed the gathering and said that he had been in prison three times for drugs. When he came out the third time, rather than returning to the peer group that had put him into prison, he was encouraged to play sport, and because of that, he started playing in a football team. Not only that, but his peer group—tough guys, tough kids—saw him in a different way, and he also has a job. David Lacey said that had it not been for sport, he would definitely have been back in Durham jail because of drugs. He is now off drugs and has a job, but more importantly he has a peer group that will keep him out of prison. That is what sport can do, and we must be clear that it is important to consider who young people associate with—their habits, peer group and lifestyle. That is why we must work with the probation service and so on. Street games and street athletics are important, whether they are informal or formal. I fully support street games and will be in Manchester at the back end of August, as I have been in previous years.
As always, my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey has a million new ideas—about one in a thousand works, but I love his ideas. I agree entirely that we must look at Sure Start and factor it in. We are doing a lot of work on that.
I usually commend my hon. Friend for having his ear to the ground, but on this occasion it is not as close to the ground as usual. We are making the best use of primary school data on height and weight measurements, which will be available in the autumn. Pilots are running, and we will use that information to consider how to inform parents. We are in front of the game. In Somerset, the DASH scheme—do activity stay healthy—which is a link between the primary care trust and the county sports partnership, has some very good ideas and is focusing on some very good pilots in the area.
Mr. Don Foster: Will the Minister tell us whether information from the trials in which height and weight are being recorded will be sent to each parent of the children who are measured?
Mr. Caborn:
Yes, but we will also look at groupings. When high levels of obesity are linked to inactivity, we
may have to go beyond the parents for collective action. The pilots will show where we need to target resources.
My hon. Friend the Member for Eccles has, as always, done a fantastic job in liaising with me, and keeping me informed about martial arts. I am a great supporter of boxing. My experience is in Sheffield, where Brendan Ingles, who is a good friend of mine, has probably kept more kids out of prison than any probation officer—that is not a criticism of probation officers. At his gym on Saturday mornings there may be a hundred kids, who are as tough as nails and probably at the bottom of the economic ladder, but they have self-respect, self-esteem and play a considerable role in the community.
Under Paul King, the Amateur Boxing Association is at last getting its act together, which I welcome, and I think it will go from strength to strength. The martial arts generally and boxing in particular should not remain in clubs but should, where possible, be taken into schools in the way that my hon. Friend has described. I will go with him to meet Home Office Ministers, and I will consider anything we can do to get young people involved in sport.
My hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Mr. Reed) has referred to the drop-off rate and volunteering. He is absolutely right, and we must consider that carefully, as we are. The Russell report started to focus on that, and the organisation has been set up. We are working closely with it, and I had a meeting last week when I agreed to bring governing bodies together to consider their strategies on volunteering—we will then bring in the private sector. The organisation is working with my officials, which is important. Sport will not happen in this country and will not grow without volunteers.
My hon. Friend was absolutely right about officiators. Football and other sports are seriously considering that. Every weekend, football in this city is short of 200 referees, and unless we start to address that, we will not see the sort of growth that we want.
I am not as downhearted as my hon. Friend about the PSSCL side. Twenty-two national governing bodies are delivering through the club structure. More can be done, but 27 per cent. of young people from the school sport partnership are now participating in high-quality club activities. We are starting to move forward. The governing bodies have transformed themselves in the recent past and are examining how they deliver through the club structure, not just in the community, but in schools. The club-to-school and school-to-club links are important if we are to have a sustainable structure and address the drop-off rate. It is important to have volunteers linked into that.
None of those initiatives stand in isolation; they are part of the landscape of people working together. That is why I believe we are moving into an era with the most sustainable sports structure of anywhere in the world, from mass participation in schools to the elite on the podium. That is what we must do if we are to achieve what we want to achieve in 2012.
The Olympics in 2012 is not an end in itself; it is a means to many ends. It consists of 26 sports—30-odd if winter sports are included—and I have responsibility for 130 sports in this country. We must ensure that the magic and gold dust around the Olympics are used to change the nation’s attitude to sport and physical activity. The Olympics are not an end in themselves, but a means to many ends.
Ian Stewart: Will my hon. Friend take on board my comments about the Special Olympics, and is he prepared to meet me and the Special Olympics organisation to discuss it?
Mr. Caborn: I assure my hon. Friend that I am in continual dialogue with the Special Olympics through Lawrie McMenemy.
Adjourned accordingly at twenty-nine minutes past Five o’clock.
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