(2) what representations she has received from (a) hon. and right hon. Members, (b) schools, (c) teachers, (d) parents and (e) others on the funding position of the Panathlon Challenge in each of the last two years;
(3) what recent research she has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the effectiveness of the Panathlon Challenge in increasing the involvement of school children in competitive sport; and if she will make a statement.
No such research has been commissioned. The Government are committed to establishing a framework for competitive sport through the National School Sport Strategy, which includes a national network of Competition Managers who promote competitive sport; and the UK School Games, which is developing competitive sporting opportunities for young people between now and 2012.
My Department has received one public petition on funding for the Panathlon Challenge and the following other representations:
2006 2007 MP's 1 7 Schools/teachers 10 0 Parents 0 0 Others 7 3
The Government have committed over £1.5 billion of funding to school sport in the five years to 2008, including over £800,000 from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) for the Panathlon Challenge. DfES have no plans to commit further funding to the Panathlon Challenge.
Increasing the quality and amount of competitive school sport is at the heart of the work of all School Sport Partnerships.
The 2005-06 School Sport Survey showed that:
97 per cent. of schools held a competitive sports day,
71 per cent. of pupils were involved in intra-school competition, and
37 per cent. of pupils from years four to 11 were involved in inter-school competition, a rise of 12 per cent. on 2003-04.
To support and further develop our work on competitive school sport, we are establishing a network of competition managers across School Sport Partnerships.
The first wave of 20 competition managers were appointed from September 2005 and the recruitment of a second wave of 42 competition managers is almost complete. Between September 2006 and March 2007 there were over 150,000 attendances by young people at over 2,000 competitions organised by competition managers. A further wave of recruitment will begin later this year raising the total number of competition managers to at least 90 by the end of 2007.
In addition, we have established the UK school games to help develop the content and structure of competitive sporting opportunities for young people between now and 2012.