Tag: Stuart Andrew

The speech made by Stuart Andrew, the Sports Minister, on 8 June 2023.

It is a pleasure to address all 72 EFL clubs today.

You represent much more than 90 minutes on a pitch – you are the beating hearts of your communities and part of the fabric of our national identity.

I want to start by thanking you for the incredibly positive impact that you have on the local communities you serve.

This is underlined by the “EFL clubs and their Club Community” report published earlier this year.

I was pleased to attend the launch of that report and enjoyed hearing from individuals who have led, supported, and benefited from the incredible work you do in local communities.

I was also pleased to hear of the EFL’s partnership with the British Red Cross in which you are working together to tackle loneliness in our society.

It was a fitting and timely intervention ahead of Loneliness Awareness Week taking place next week.

This Government is proud to support the EFL.

We have supported your work in the community, providing the English Football League Trust with £1.3 million through the Loneliness Covid-19 Fund, to make onward grants to its Football Club Community Organisations in 32 deprived locations across England, with the aim of connecting older people at risk of loneliness.

Supporting the pyramid is crucial and this Government has already committed to invest £300 million of funding to support grassroots multi-sport facilities across the UK by 2025. This is a key element of the Government’s upcoming sport strategy which will be published shortly.

This year is a significant one for English Football.

I am absolutely delighted to be backing our bid to bring EURO 2028 to the UK and Ireland.

Our incredibly inspiring and talented Lionesses, the reigning European Champions, will be taking on the world at the FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer.

The recent success of the Lionesses has accelerated interest in the women’s game, with more people now watching, attending and playing women’s football than ever before.

The Review of Women’s Football which we launched in September and is being Chaired by Karen Carney, is looking at how to deliver bold and sustainable growth of the women’s game at elite and grassroots levels.

This was the first recommendation taken forward from the independent Fan Led Review, and I look forward to seeing the findings published this summer.

And of course, we started this year by publishing our Football Governance White Paper in response to that Fan Led Review.

This included the groundbreaking commitment to establish a new statutory and independent regulator for English football.

Despite the phenomenal success of football at home and abroad, we have seen too many examples of the devastating impact the failure of a beloved club can have on a local community.

Since the Premier League was created in 1992, there have been 64 instances of clubs collapsing into administration.

Historic clubs have been lost, taking with them chunks of our history and heritage, and leaving huge holes in their communities.

Bury Football Club was one example. A club that, just a few years ago, would have sat alongside you at today’s conference.

Over its proud 134-year history, Bury managed to survive world wars and countless economic cycles. But it was driven to the wall by financial mismanagement, which damaged the local economy and left behind a devastated fan base.

But I am pleased to say that a vote to unify Bury FC and Bury AFC passed last month and Bury Football Club will be playing once again at Gigg Lane next season!

But it is not just Bury that has been affected.

The same is true of Macclesfield Town, another century-old club, and Rushden & Diamonds. Countless others, such as Derby County, have been driven to the brink after stretching far beyond their means.

And we know there are a number of clubs across the EFL that are in real distress today.

This is where our proposals for an Independent Regulator come in.

The Regulator will have a clear focus, centred on ensuring that English football is financially sustainable and resilient for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve.

The Regulator will operate a licensing system for all clubs in the top five tiers of English football.

The Regulator will be independent of industry and Government. This will be set out in law.

The model we have set out is proportionate and flexible, allowing English Football to continue being a global-success story, while tackling harms where they exist.

Where clubs are already well run and risks are low, the Regulator will not look to intervene unless necessary, nor will the Regulator impose an extra layer of requirements to burden clubs with.

Under the Regulator’s regime…

We will legally strengthen the owners’ and directors’ tests, to protect clubs and their fans.

These new tests will reduce the likelihood of unsuitable custodians.

We will give fans more of a voice on the running of their clubs.

This will include stopping owners from changing vital club heritage, such as names, badges and home shirt colours, without approval from the fans.

Likewise, clubs will have to seek regulator approval for any sale or relocation of the stadium, and fan engagement will be a crucial part of that process.

And we will give the Regulator the power to block clubs from joining closed-shop breakaway leagues, such as the European Super League.

We want a thriving football pyramid, and more money must flow through the game to make this happen.

On financial distribution, it remains our firm belief that the best solution is a football led one. If one is not found the Regulator will have a backstop power to intervene and force a solution.

I am optimistic that discussions between the Premier League and EFL will find a solution on this urgent issue.

I am hopeful that the resolution will be found soon. I would urge both sides to reach a deal as soon as possible. It is in the game’s interests to avoid the risk of further financial uncertainty.

In short, we are protecting the long-term success of our national game, and restoring fans’ position at the heart of how football is run.

Since the publication of the White Paper in February, we have been consulting with the football industry on our proposals.

This is a crucial step in ensuring that we develop effective regulations that deliver positive outcomes for football, while minimising the harms identified in the game.

I would like to thank the EFL and many of its member clubs for your support throughout this process as we look to further develop and refine our policy.

The Government intends to publish its response to this initial period of consultation in the coming weeks.

This will represent the latest step in our ongoing commitment to support, promote and protect the national game, as well as ensuring that fans are placed at the heart of it.

We remain committed to bringing forward legislation when parliamentary time allows.

I would like to finish by encouraging you to continue progressing with your valuable work in communities across England and Wales, as well as moving forward with much needed reform.

Fans were able to have a major say in this White Paper. Football does not need to wait for an Independent Regulator to be in place before it can introduce improved governance practices. You can act now!

I want to finish by thanking the EFL for inviting me to speak at this year’s Annual Conference. I thank Rick and Trevor for their continued engagement on these important issues.

I appreciate our continued collaboration and look forward to hearing the outcome of discussions from the panel session.

The speech made by Stuart Andrew, the Sports Minister, at The Institution of Structural Engineers in London on 30 January 2023.

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today and giving me the opportunity to outline my priorities for women’s sport.

It is great to see so many of you here which reflects the genuine interest and enthusiasm surrounding this important area.

I am delighted to have taken on the role of Minister for Sport at such an exciting time and I look forward to making real progress on issues that I personally feel very passionately about, such as equality and diversity.

The Lionesses win at the Women’s Euros last Summer firmly shone the spotlight on women’s sport.

The success of England’s Red Roses reaching the final at the Women’s Rugby World Cup and the success of many female athletes at the Commonwealth Games, including Eilish McColgan’s outstanding performance in the 10,000m to name just one example, have also built on that momentum.

I feel privileged to have witnessed first hand some amazing achievements in women’s sport since I have been in post, such as Great Britain reaching the semi finals of the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time in 41 years and most recently seeing Beth Mead, the Lionesses and Sarina Wiegman being honoured at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards.

There is no doubt that the media profile of women’s sport is continuing to rise too with events such as the US Open, the Women’s Euros, the Women’s Rugby World Cup and the Women’s World Cup being made available to a wider audience on free to air television.

The Rugby League World Cup, which was hosted across England last year, put the Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair tournaments on an equal platform – hosting all three tournaments at the same time and all players receiving equal participation fees.

I want to build on this momentum ensuring that women’s sport continues to get the media attention it deserves and in turn inspire the next generation.

Audiences for women’s sport are also growing, for example, a record 23.3m UK viewers tuned in to watch the Women’s Euros final on BBC platforms and in November the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final was watched in the UK by 1.7m at 6.30am.

Figures published by Women’s Sport Trust in December showed that 43 million people watched three minutes or more of women’s sport in 2022, and a total of 325 million hours viewed.

This is in stark contrast to 2012, when London hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games, where there were 20.1 million people watching women’s sport and 19.1 million hours viewed.

This is fantastic and shows that there is a real appetite for women’s sport, something we should continue to capitalise on.

Landmark sponsorship deals, such as Barclays’ investment of over £30 million in the Women’s Super League, have injected money into the system and allowed certain sports to professionalise.

Record breaking and innovative sponsorship deals are also being struck such as Amazon Prime Video re-investing a seven figure sum from sharing the broadcast of the US Open into boosting girls’ participation in tennis.

This is all good news but we recognise that a number of challenges remain.

In terms of participation, men are still more likely to be active compared with women and the latest Active Lives Children data released in December shows that boys are more likely to be active than girls.

It is clear that more work needs to be done to continue to break down those barriers that prevent women and girls from being active such as fear of judgement, safety concerns and lack of time.

We want to ensure that everybody in this country has the opportunity to play and enjoy sport and that includes ensuring more women and girls have the opportunity to get active in a way which suits them.

We also want to continue to raise the profile of women’s sport and encourage more commercial investment into women’s sport.

It’s fantastic to see elite women’s sport getting better coverage but there is more to do to drive up audience figures tuning in to watch women’s sport and to build the case for further investment in women’s sport.

On the subject of governance, I am pleased that the strengthened Code for Sports Governance requires all National Governing Bodies (NGBs) in receipt of public funding to agree a diversity and inclusion action plan with Sport England and UK Sport.

This is a welcome step forward but we need to keep pushing – to make sure women are fairly represented on the boards of our sporting organisations.

We also want to make the most of opportunities that come our way.

Building on the success of the Women’s Euros we will continue to invest in grassroots sport to bring on the next generation of Lionesses and work with the Department for Education to ensure girls have equal access to sports.

We are also working with the Football Foundation and FA to name sites after the Lionesses – in towns and cities which shaped their careers.

The Women’s World Cup in the summer will again shine a light on women’s football and we want to be ready to embrace the renewed interest that this will inevitably generate.

The UK is also hosting the International Working Group on Women and Sport until 2026. This is a great opportunity not only to share the fantastic work we are doing but to learn from other countries too.

In addition, we are refreshing our overarching sport strategy at DCMS and it’s clear that women’s sport needs to be a central part of this.

We are also working with UK Sport to identify future events we could support including the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup and the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup which I am pleased to say will both be held in England.

And following the work by Tracey Crouch and her fan led review of football governance, we are carrying out an in-depth review of domestic women’s football led by Karen Carney to examine issues affecting the game at elite and grassroots level.

We need to maintain an emphasis on improving participation, employment opportunities, commercial investment and visibility in the media. The Review of Women’s Football will support the continued growth and development of the women’s game, to ensure it has a strong and sustainable future.

This is a defining period for women’s football, and this thorough review will be at the heart of that.

I am also keen to engage further on transgender participation in sport and the Secretary of State and I will host a further meeting with sports shortly to understand what work national governing bodies are doing in this area.

We want to ensure that everybody in this country has the opportunity to play and enjoy sport, but when it comes to competitive women’s sport, the Government believes that fairness has to be the primary consideration.

So in conclusion, we want to continue to build on recent successes such as the Women’s Euros and the good work already being done.

As I said at the beginning, this is an area that I care about passionately, and inclusion in sport is a priority for me. We also need to look ahead and be prepared to take advantage of opportunities and find ways to overcome challenges.

I look forward to working with you to ensure that all aspects of women’s sport continue to flourish, and to hearing your ideas for how we can make Britain a great place for women’s sport.

Thank you.

The speech made by Stuart Andrew, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in the House of Commons on 10 January 2023.

I beg to move,

That this House has considered sport in schools and communities.

I am really pleased to open this general debate on this important topic. We will all agree that sport has a vital role to play in all of our lives, through its power to be a force for good that brings communities together and as an important tool in improving the health of the nation. The topic of today’s debate brings together multiple areas of work from multiple Departments and arm’s length bodies, which is why I am so pleased to be joined by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Schools, who will be closing this debate. The work of both of our Departments, as well as many others, contributes to the overall Government mission to support everyone, especially children and young people, to be able to enjoy sport and be more active. As a Government, we are fully committed to supporting sport in schools and communities.

I wish to take a moment briefly to reflect on the power that sport has to bring us together. Last year, we again saw so many unforgettable moments that transcend beyond just the single match or competition, such as the fantastic success of our Lionesses winning at Euro 2022. That inspirational tournament was a truly ground-breaking moment for the sport and has supercharged interest in the women’s game.

We also hosted the Commonwealth games in Birmingham that saw more women’s medals awarded for the first time and truly showcased the fantastic region of Birmingham and the west midlands. We saw success at the men’s T20 world cup and at the rugby world cup. We also hosted a fantastic rugby league world cup tournament here in the UK, with victory for our fantastic wheelchair team. I was very lucky and fortunate enough to be there and see that fantastic victory in person.

The benefits of participating in sports and doing regular exercise are well known. Undertaking regular exercise helps mitigate a wide range of health conditions, both physical and mental, vitally easing the pressure on our NHS. For example, sport and physical activity directly prevents 150,000 cases of heart disease and stroke and 900,000 cases of diabetes per year.

Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)

I am delighted to see both my right hon. Friend and the Minister for Schools on the Front Bench. My only regret is that a relevant Minister from the Department of Health and Social Care is not here, as they also put money into the PE and sport premium. Can the Minister reassure us that the Department of Health and Social Care are as engaged in this agenda as are the Departments for Education and for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport?

Stuart Andrew

Absolutely. I am happy to confirm that. One thing on which I am focused, and I know that my right hon. Friend the Minister for Schools agrees with me, is that we do work across Government, as there are benefits for all Departments in getting this area of work right.

Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)

The Minister opened this debate by recognising all the brilliant English and British sporting achievements in 2022. I am sure that he will join me in congratulating the four Lionesses who were honoured in the new year’s honours list, which was much deserved. I wish that it had been the whole squad, but we will leave it at that. He will recall that I led a Westminster Hall debate last November on girls and women’s participation in sport following the Lionesses’ success. He promised to work with the Department for Education on ensuring that every child gets at least two hours PE a week. I would welcome an update on those discussions. Perhaps the Minister might mention that in his wind-up.

Stuart Andrew

I will certainly join the hon. Lady in congratulating those members of the team who were awarded honours in the new year’s honours list. Indeed, since that Westminster Hall debate, both the Secretary of State for Education and I have met with members of the Lionesses team and gone through further details. We hope to make more statements certainly by April of this year, because we recognise the importance of the suggestions that she has made.

Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)

The Minister has mentioned a number of great sporting moments over the past year. May I put it on record that one of the great sporting moments was the stance that he took over Qatar, and that many of us appreciated that stance?

My hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (Jonathan Gullis) mentioned the PE and sport premium for schools. I have seen the advantages that that brings to disadvantaged children in my community. Can my right hon. Friend confirm whether the Government intend to continue funding that project? If he cannot confirm that now, will he write to me, because that project really does make a difference to those in local communities in my constituency of Eastleigh.

Stuart Andrew

I appreciate the kind words that my hon. Friend said at the start of his intervention. He is right to highlight the success of the PE and sport premium funding, which is exactly why the Government have doubled that funding. We are considering the arrangements at the moment for the academic year 2023-24, and I hope that we will be making an announcement as soon as possible.

John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)

Does the Minister agree that a good way of promoting sport within the public sector and in public facilities is a joint use of facilities between schools and the wider community, so that, with the right maintenance and support staff, those facilities can be used at weekends and during the holidays?

Stuart Andrew

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. Our Departments are working on that; it is going well in some areas, but we need to see it improve right across the country so that those great facilities are available to as many people as possible.

Kim Leadbeater (Batley and Spen) (Lab) rose—

Stuart Andrew

I will take one more intervention and then I really must crack on.

Kim Leadbeater

The Minister has made some excellent opening remarks and there have been some excellent interventions already. Less than half of all children currently meet the daily guidelines for sport and physical activity, but 54% of children would like to do more of it. I hope the Government will commit to giving PE and physical literacy the focus and time in the curriculum that it needs, with properly trained and resourced staff who can inspire pupils to embed sport and physical activity as lifelong habits and, in the long term, to save our NHS.

Stuart Andrew

The hon. Lady is right to identify that the earlier we get people involved in sport, the longer they will hopefully continue to participate and live healthier lives. That is why we are working on developing the sport strategy, as part of which I will be working with my colleagues across Government to ensure we are maximising every possible opportunity to get people into sport and physical activity.

James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)

Will the Minister give way once more?

Stuart Andrew

I will do once more, but I am conscious there is not much time for Back Benchers to speak.

James Sunderland

The active lives survey published recently showed that in Bracknell only 41% of children are classed as being active. We are not entirely sure why that is; we are working with schools to try to remedy the issue, and with the fantastic sporting facilities in schools locally I am confident that we will do so. One issue raised by teachers is that the annual sports premium is only ever announced late in the financial year. Will Minister please make sure that we get early notification of that funding so that schools, teachers and clubs can plan ahead for the forthcoming year?

Stuart Andrew

This is the moment where I am glad that my right hon. Friend the Schools Minister is sitting by my side, so he can hear those messages and take them back to his Department. To be fair, he is already aware of those issues and will consider them when future announcements are made.

Sport also has the power to bring communities closer together through fostering social cohesion. It gives young people essential leadership and teamwork skills and has the power to tackle loneliness, reduce inequality, increase youth engagement and tackle youth violence. It is an essential part of a healthy and happy life. Research commissioned by Sport England shows that for every £1 invested in community sport there is a return of £4 in wider social economic value. That is why as a Government we are so committed to ensuring that everyone across the country has access to high-quality provision.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)

Will the Minister give way on that point?

Stuart Andrew

One more time—I keep saying one more time.

Jamie Stone

The Minister is being very generous. I represent the most remote part of the UK mainland, and young people in Wick High School and Thurso High School find it very difficult to travel to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Perth to participate. It is tough on school finances and tough on family finances. I understand completely that sport is devolved, but I hope that the Government are going to look at some scheme to help parents and children in the most remote parts of England to access sport so that they are not disadvantaged because of inequality—and, since he mentioned cross-Government working, could he then share that best practice with the Scottish Government?

Stuart Andrew

Always happy to give advice to the Scottish Government. The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight those points and that is exactly what we will focus on in the sport strategy. There are hard-to-reach areas, more rural areas and areas of deprivation in other parts of the country too, so that will be a focus of the strategy that we are currently developing.

Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)

Will the Minister give way just one more time?

Stuart Andrew

I am just going to carry on a bit, because I am conscious that we do not have much time and many Members want to take part.

We know that there are significant disparities across the country, from Southall to Sunderland, and we are committed to tackling them. I make clear that it is my personal priority to do so. Through our arm’s length body, Sport England, we invest more than £250 million of public and lottery funding annually. Over the past 12 months, 19.2% of Sport England’s local-level investment has been for projects in indices of multiple deprivation or IMD 1 areas, providing direct support to organisations and communities in the areas that need it most.

Having the right facilities of the right quality is fundamental to a strong sporting community. That is why we are acting to deliver the facilities that every community needs, right across the UK. We are investing a total of £230 million between 2022 and 2025 in all four home nations. That includes an existing £18 million annual commitment in England, delivered via the Football Foundation in partnership with the Football Association and the Premier League. We hope that that investment will build or improve up to 8,000 facilities across the country, especially in the most deprived areas, and not just for football—40% of our investment will deliver facilities that support multiple sports. We are also investing £30 million, together with the Lawn Tennis Association, to renovate and repair thousands of public park tennis courts.

We are also working to ensure that major events have a significant and lasting impact on the communities in which they are held. During the summer, I was fortunate enough to visit the new facilities at Leigh Miners Rangers, which benefited from £350,000 as part of the rugby league world cup social impact programme. It is a thriving community hub that was galvanised and reinvigorated by that tournament. We recognise that we need to maintain progress, and, as I say, we will publish this year a new sports strategy that will set out how we will continue to support people, no matter who they are or where they are from, to enjoy the benefits of participating in sport.

Seema Malhotra

Will the Minister clarify whether the strategy he is referring to will be the updated school sport and activity action plan, which has been an area of concern, and whether there will be time for consultation before that plan is published so that voices can be heard as part of its development?

Stuart Andrew

The sport strategy that I am referring to is the wider, cross-Government one, but there will be the other report that the hon. Lady refers to. The Minister of State, Department for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Nick Gibb) will be able to give a bit more of an update about that in his closing remarks. Now that is dodging a question!

Ensuring that those from hard-to-reach communities get opportunities to play sport is really matters to me personally, and I look forward to working with Members across the House to make progress in this area.

Kim Leadbeater

Will the Minister give way?

Stuart Andrew

One more time and then I must finish.

Kim Leadbeater

I thank the Minister, who is being extremely generous with his time. He makes some valid points about community facilities. Yesterday, the Government announced changes to the energy bill relief scheme. I am really pleased that they are committed to providing additional support to organisations such as libraries and museums, but can the Minister tell the House why sport and leisure centres were not included on that list? Swimming pools in particular face incredibly high energy bills. Many are threatened with closure or have already closed, including Batley baths and recreation centre in my constituency, which is, sadly, temporarily closed. Those are hubs in the community, so this is not just about physical wellbeing but about mental wellbeing, social cohesion and lots of other things besides. Can he confirm whether that will be looked at and whether the Government will be able to provide such facilities with the support they need?

Stuart Andrew

I am acutely aware of the concerns of many hon. Members about leisure centres and costs. Of course, the scheme that was announced initially has helped a great deal in that area, but to recognise the importance of the matter, I am holding a roundtable with some interested bodies in the coming weeks to look at it in more detail and see what else we can do.

As a Government, we are focused on how we can support our children and young people to become more active. Quite simply, sport and physical activity are a lifelong habit that needs to be carefully nurtured. We are committed to ensuring that every child, regardless of their background, has access to and benefits from quality sporting opportunities. Dealing with this challenge has never been more important than when we are coming out of the pandemic. Some 2.2 million children—or 30%—are not meeting the chief medical officer’s guidance on levels of activity. I was pleased to see in the latest active lives survey for children, which was released in December, that children’s activity levels have recovered to pre-pandemic levels. There were particularly significant increases in the activity levels of teenage girls. Although that positive progress should be applauded, we know that more work needs to be done to ensure that every child realises the benefits of being active and playing sport.

We are taking action to tackle that challenge. In partnership with colleagues from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education, we continue to invest £320 million per year in the PE and sport premium to provide dedicated funding to primary schools to deliver high-quality PE provision. We also continue to fund the school games programme as a vital tool to encourage children to compete in competitive sport.

Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con)

Will my hon. Friend give way?

Stuart Andrew

Before I finish, I will take one more intervention.

Damian Collins

I am grateful. I declare my interest as a trustee of the Sports Trust in Folkestone and Hythe, which delivers a lot of primary school sport activity. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, in encouraging best practice, it is important to look not just at levels of activity in and out of school, but at the improvement in academic attainment in schools that do a lot of sport? It has much wider benefits than just physical health, including academic attainment.

Stuart Andrew

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The benefits of physical activity are widespread, as I mentioned at the beginning. He is right to highlight that point, and we will make sure to consider it as we develop the strategy.

Last year, we saw how sport has the power to inspire. The fantastic success of the Lionesses marked a step change for women’s sport in this country, and we are fully committed to ensuring that all girls have equal access to provision within schools and to looking at how PE can deliver that. As a Government, we are committed to publishing an update to the school sport and physical activity action plan this year, which will set out our ambitions and next steps to support more children to take part in sports.

In conclusion, I welcome this debate on such an important topic. As I have set out, we are already taking action, and as we look to publish our sports strategy later this year, and the updated school sport and physical activity action plan, we will set the blueprint for how the Government will continue to support more people to enjoy the benefits of sport and then take advantage of the many benefits that we know it brings for everybody.

The speech made by Stuart Andrew, the Sports Minister, on 12 January 2023.

Good morning and thank you for the invitation to speak to you today in my role as Minister for Sport, Tourism and Civil Society.

It is a special privilege to be the Minister responsible for sport, particularly at such an exciting time for the sector.

2022 was filled with incredible sporting events that are still fresh in the minds of the British public.

Who could forget the record-breaking Women’s Euros and that magical summer day at Wembley when England were crowned champions, inspiring millions with their iconic victory.

Despite the challenges of organising international sporting events during the pandemic, we delivered on the global stage, through the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, alongside other major sporting tournaments

I was also lucky enough to attend a number of matches during the ground-breaking Rugby League World Cup which took place in towns and cities across England.

The first Rugby League tournament to integrate the men’s, women’s and wheelchair tournaments with great success.

And I was fortunate to attend the exciting World Gymnastics Championships last autumn which was hosted in the great city of Liverpool.

I strongly believe in the power of major sporting events.

They enrich the lives of people all across the country.

They bring people together.

They drive economic growth.

Enhance global Britain, and help ensure a lasting social impact and legacy through the world-class grassroots facilities that they leave behind for people of all backgrounds to enjoy.

That is why the Government remains committed to bringing the biggest and best sporting events in the world to this country.

I am hugely excited about what is to come in the months and years ahead for hosting major events in the UK.

For example, an unprecedented combined UCI World Cycling Championships in Glasgow and across Scotland later this year, a women’s Rugby World Cup in 2025, and, of course, the prospect of a combined UK & Ireland bid for the UEFA EURO 2028 Championships.

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank every person in the room today for the hard work, grit and determination that you have shown since this event was last convened in person in 2019.

I know how difficult the intervening period has been for the sport events sector and your resilience has been remarkable.

Your hard work in 2022 was rewarded with a phenomenal collection of events that brought great joy to the British public, and I cannot wait to work with you on what comes next.

I am now pleased to introduce Simon Morton, Deputy CEO and Director of Major Events at UK Sport.

Thank you again, and I hope you all have a very fulfilling and productive day.