PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Primary Education: Sports (28 November 2017)

Through the primary PE and sport premium, the government has invested over £600 million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013. The government has doubled the premium to £320 million a year from September 2017 using revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.

Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport they offer. The premium must be used to develop or add to the PE and sport activities that a school already offers and make improvements now that will benefit pupils joining the school in future years, including after school clubs.

An independent evaluation report into the premium was published in December 2015. It found that 77% of schools surveyed introduced new sports in both curricular PE (74%) and extra-curricular sport (77%) since the premium was introduced.

Through its new Families Fund, Sport England will be investing up to £40 million into projects which offer new opportunities for families with children to get active and play sport together. Sport England is currently working with applicants who are developing proposals for the first tranche of investment (£10 million) from the Families Fund.