Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Derek Wyatt (Labour). It was answered on Monday, 1 March 2010 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Participation in Sport

Question: I thank the Secretary of State for those figures, which are impressive. However, does he think that we would have made even more progress if we had had a separate Department for sport and health?

Answer: No. I think that the structure of governance that we have at the moment, which we introduced in 1997, is a very good one. That does not mean, however, that there are not very good arguments for my Department working much more closely with the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, as we have been on the whole public health, sport and physical activity agenda. We have been seeing the fruits of that co-operation and we will see further fruits of that co-operation in the weeks to come and in our manifesto.

Secondary information