Thank you, Presiding Officer. Will the First Minister please make a statement on the role the Welsh Government sees for sport—

The First Minister?

Oh, sorry. [Laughter.] The Minister. [Interruption.] Yes, well, one day, Becs, one day. [Laughter.] Sorry, I’ll start again.

1. Will the Minister make a statement on the role the Welsh Government sees for sport in helping to improve the health and well-being of the people of Wales? OAQ(5)0015(HWS)

The Welsh Government remains committed to increasing rates of participation in physical activity through sport. Sport Wales are our key delivery agent and are working with a range of partners and stakeholders to drive forward our agenda of making Wales a more active and healthy nation.

Thank you, Minister. Merthyr council has secured funding of almost £12.9 million under the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Places programme to support regeneration projects in Merthyr Tydfil. Will the Minister then join me in commending the initiative of both Merthyr Town Football Club and Merthyr council in utilising a grant from this funding arrangement to support the development of a modern facility at Penydarren Park, providing a sustainable community sports initiative, which is encouraging greater public engagement with the club as well as, of course, securing additional local economic benefits arising out of the building contract that came with that?

I thank you for that question. I certainly join you in commending Merthyr Town FC and Merthyr council for working in partnership to ensure a sustainable future for community sports in the area, and I’m more than delighted that Welsh Government was able to play its part by providing over £2 million for the funding for Penydarren Park through our Vibrant and Viable Places programme. That really demonstrates our commitment to providing a new flexible facility for recreation but also education and training as well in the area. I’ll just add how impressed I am that Merthyr Town FC was voted the best grass-roots club in Europe by UEFA last year. I think that’s a tremendous achievement.

Sport plays a really valuable role, Minister, in improving public health, but one sector of our society doesn’t seem to participate the same as the other part, which is men versus women—. On a national survey, 100,000 fewer women play sport than men. There’s been an active campaign across the UK entitled This Girl Can to raise participation levels in sport by actually moving beyond some of the stereotypical models of people who play sport and actually showing that sport is for all. Has the Welsh Government taken a view on this particular campaign and, indeed, has the Welsh Government participated in formulating any actions around the campaign so that we can reach into all communities and show that sport isn’t for a set type of individual—it is for everyone?

Absolutely. I do thank you for that question. I’m pleased that we already have over 3,500 girl football players registered under the age of 18 and also nearly 1,500 adult women. I think that perhaps the current games will inspire more to consider getting involved with that. But you’re absolutely right that sport plays an important role in public health, which is why the Welsh Government have moved sport and public health into the same portfolio. I’m very keen to find out more about the This Girl Can programme; perhaps we can have a meeting to discuss that further, because I’m very keen to see what we can do to encourage girls and women to take more interest in sport and physical activity and recreation as well.

I’m aware that we’re doing some great work through Street Games, which encourages girls in particular to get involved with street dance and other forms of activity that are beyond the traditional netball and hockey, which is not appealing to everybody, I know.

In Newport East, we’ve been meeting locally—myself, the local health board, the leisure trust, Newport City Council, Natural Resources Wales, the local sports bodies and a host of others—to work out how we can get the local population more physically active. So, I wonder if you would agree with me, Minister, that Welsh Government should support those efforts, because if we are going to become more proactive and forge ahead on the preventative health front, we need to pull partners together to deliver meaningful action locally, right across Wales.

You’re absolutely right in identifying there that the answer does lie in partnership working and this is why Welsh Government has, with Sport Wales and Public Health Wales, put in place a director of physical activity for Wales, and that director is currently putting together an action plan for action. We look forward to receiving that towards the end of this term. I’ll spend this summer considering that and talking to stakeholders about it, with a view to publishing it later on in the autumn, setting out the actions for the next steps.