Speeches by Leadbeater.

“It was an absolute joy to be pulling a pint with my hon. Friend this morning in the Strangers Bar—just to be clear, we did not drink it. I am grateful to everybody involved in the Great Get Together beer. Through it, we have shown the power of the pubs, clubs and venues that we all have in our constituencies, where peo…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his most marvellous intervention, and for wearing a beautiful coloured tie, which perfectly co-ordinates with the Jo Cox Foundation logo. He is absolutely right, and he is such a valuable addition to this place. I thank him for his friendship.”

“If there is an impact, for example, on disabled facilities, is there a mechanism for organisations to monitor that and is there a way that the Commission can support them in doing that? What does that look like?”

“Thank you both for coming in this afternoon. You have had a really difficult job to do and you have my sympathy and understanding for that. I am concerned about what this looks like in the real world. Dr Stephenson, one of your opening comments was that we now have a very clear position about what the law says but the …”

“My background is in sport, health and fitness so it is something I feel very strongly about. I just wondered what you believe the implications of the code are on sport, whether that is at a competitive level or at a recreational level, and what you will be doing to work with organisations that deliver sport and recreat…”

“My concern there—we will come on to this shortly—is the impact for wonderful groups and organisations such as Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute, which have very clearly said to me and to other colleagues, “We now have a lot of problems we just did not have before because we were actually doing a fine job of includi…”

“India, do you have anything to add to that?”

“That is really interesting. Thank you. I wonder whether anyone would describe male coaches as bossy or stroppy.”

“India and Lisa, you both mentioned a male coach who was involved in your journey. I did an event with Women in Sport yesterday about male allies of women in sport from both a playing and coaching perspective. Could you tell us a little about how important that was and maybe share your own experiences of what made your …”

“That is really helpful. Hannah, do you want to add anything from the perspective of a woman working in football?”

“Brilliant; that is really good. Thank you very much, India. Again, that transition from playing to coaching sounds like a very logical one, but I would imagine it is not always that easy, so maybe we will come back to that. As someone who did not have a playing career, what advice would you give to women and girls who …”

“That is lovely. I might come back to you to talk about how that could have been easier, or the key things that made it easy for you that might not be easy for other people. It sounds as though your coach is one of them.”

“I could listen to you for a long time.”

“Thank you for coming in today; it is really greatly appreciated. My background is in sport and health and fitness, so I am very excited about today’s inquiry and it is great that you are here to share your expertise and experience with us. We are going to look first at routes into coaching. Can you tell us a little abo…”

“You mentioned two other sectors, finance and construction. Coincidentally, I was speaking to an inspirational woman last night called Vicky Brook, who set up Women’s Leadership Group. Her organisation looks at how we can get more women into leadership roles, and the role of sport in developing the skills to enable wome…”

“That is brilliant and it fits in perfectly with the conversations that have been had by the Government and the media over the number of young people who are not in employment, education, or training. Your organisation has described sport and physical activity as an under-utilised vehicle for tackling youth unemployment…”

“On top of that, you have called for improved careers education. It is something I feel quite strongly about. I ended up going back to do my degree when I was 25 because in my academic route, going to a traditional grammar school, sport was not even mentioned as a career. You were either going to be a doctor, lawyer or …”

“That is really interesting. Amy, Coach Core has said that apprenticeships remove some barriers that volunteer-based pathways do not always address. Can you tell us a little about what those barriers are and what your views are around how apprenticeships can be used to widen access and encourage more diverse talent to g…”

“What specific actions do you think governing bodies and/or the Government could take to attract more young women into coaching and create more visible pathways?”

“It is lovely to have you all here this afternoon. Lisa, it is nice to see you; I have done quite a lot of work with Women in Sport, and I have possibly met Emily and Amy at some point over the last few years. We are going to talk first about routes into coaching for young women. Lisa, Sport England told us that there i…”