Conservatives launch sports policy paper

Hugh launched the "Extending Opportunities" sports policy paper today. It highlights the importance of getting more people to play sport at grassroots level.

The Conservative Party has today released ‘Extending Opportunities’ a new sports policy paper. The paper, which will be refined into a number of key pledges before the next General Election, sets out the Party’s vision for the future of sport.

The policy paper makes a number of commitments including:

Restoring National Lottery funding, cut from sport by the current government – The Conservative Party will return lottery funding to the four original pillars. This along with other changes to the way the National Lottery is structured could see an additional £58 million a year going into elite and grassroots sport.

Reinvigorating competitive sport in schools – The Conservative Party would reform the UK School Games with a new inter-school competition based around individual schools. Competition would be placed at the forefront of school sport by encouraging all schools to develop inter-school fixtures.

Introducing a World Class Events Act to attract major world class competitions to this country - Conservatives would introduce a cross government compact that would deliver permanent commitments on security, taxation, visas, bans on ticket touting, betting and broadcasting rights for major sports events. We believe that this would help attract world class sports tournaments to this country with all the revenue and enjoyment that they provide.

Shadow Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson said:
“The next decade promises to be one of the most exciting ever for sport in this country. However, alongside all the excitement of the events themselves, it is crucial that we get more people playing sport at grassroots level.

“The sports mission of the next Conservative government is simple. We want to extend the opportunities available through sport to the maximum number of people.”