Written questions by Wheeler.

Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the report by Barnado's and Co-op entitled Deeper Roots, Stronger Futures: Unlocking the Potential of Food Partnerships with Young People report, published on 7 July 2025, on her forthcoming youth strategy.

We will review this report as part of our work to develop a new National Youth Strategy. The Strategy is being co-produced with young people and stakeholders working with and for young people, and the breadth of issues it covers will be shaped by our engagement.The strategy will aim to better coordinate youth services, as well as move away from one-size-fits all approaches from central government, bringing power back to young people and their communities and rebuilding a thriving and sustainable sector. We will be publishing the strategy in the autumn.Alongside this, Defra’s food strategy will articulate the outcomes we want from the food system enabling government, civil society, and the food industry to work to shared goals and priorities. Local and place-based approaches will have a key role to play in delivery of these outcomes. The government will continue to work with partners across the food system as we develop our approach.

Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the possible regulatory failures identified in the Review of the Regulation of BetIndex Limited: final report, published on 22 September 2021, in the context of providing compensation to individuals who incurred financial losses as a result of the collapse of Football Index.

I refer my Honourable Friend to the answer I gave on 8 January 2025 to Question UIN 21381.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage grassroots sports clubs to share their facilities with local communities.

The Government recognises that sports facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Sport England, our arm’s length body that is responsible for physical activity and sport participation in England, invests over £250 million a year into grassroots sport and physical activity. A large part of Sport England’s work focuses on bringing organisations together at a local level including the health and sports sectors. This includes their place partnerships work which is working in a targeted way with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers in their communities. The Government-funded School Games Organisers are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity. There are over 450 SGOs across the country who support schools in their local areas to provide physical activity both inside and outside of school, with many facilitating links to wider club and community engagement. We are considering how we can best make all of this work for local communities as part of the Spending Review.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage local authorities to develop strategies to bring (a) schools, (b) grassroots sports clubs and (c) other relevant organisations together to promote participation in sport.

The Government recognises that sports facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Sport England, our arm’s length body that is responsible for physical activity and sport participation in England, invests over £250 million a year into grassroots sport and physical activity. A large part of Sport England’s work focuses on bringing organisations together at a local level including the health and sports sectors. This includes their place partnerships work which is working in a targeted way with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers in their communities. The Government-funded School Games Organisers are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity. There are over 450 SGOs across the country who support schools in their local areas to provide physical activity both inside and outside of school, with many facilitating links to wider club and community engagement. We are considering how we can best make all of this work for local communities as part of the Spending Review.

Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential contribution of grassroots sports clubs in preventative healthcare.

Sport and physical activity including grassroots sports clubs play a vital role in preventing, and helping to treat and manage, a wide range of health conditions and in delivering the Government’s Health Mission.Latest evidence provided by Sport England shows that physical activity directly prevents 3.2 million cases of long term health conditions per year, including 1.3 million cases of depression and 600,000 cases of diabetes, worth over £10 billion in healthcare savings each year.