3. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to encourage community sport and active recreation? OAQ53914

Thank you very much, Jayne. Making our communities more active continues to be a priority area and, indeed, is a responsibility for me as a champion for physical activity on behalf of the Welsh Government. Last year through Sport Wales we invested over £10.9 million in local authorities across Wales to support the development of community sport and active recreation and helping to meet local needs. I look forward to joining you on Saturday at a very important venue and wish Newport County well.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Diolch, Deputy Minister. I'm very pleased that you've mentioned Newport County AFC. Walk Newport in my constituency is an excellent example of the health and well-being benefits of active recreation. Organised and led by volunteers, they lead walks of varying difficulties across Newport and the wider area twice a week. With over 100 members, they arrange day trips and have been running successfully for many years. Participation in the group has had a hugely positive effect, addressing loneliness and social isolation and the physical health benefits are evident. Aneurin Bevan University Health Board refer cardiac patients to the group, helping people living with long-term health conditions keep active in a relaxed and enjoyable way. Groups like these really are invaluable and very much part of the preventative agenda. Sadly, the group has seen its small allocation of funding withdrawn, which has caused great concern. Could the Deputy Minister investigate what more can be done to ensure that groups like Walk Newport get the recognition and funding to continue?

Thank you for that supplementary. I have, indeed, joined a number of walking groups recently. I think the Treorchy strollers was the last one. Of course, it combines physical activity in a beautiful, natural environment—and as someone who walked the Gwent levels only the other Sunday, I know how important the environment in Newport is. So, at the risk of inviting myself everywhere, I will be very happy to meet with Walk Newport to discuss with them. We deliver, through our healthy ageing programme with Age Cymru, a programme to increase physical activity, especially among older people across Wales, and we are looking, in the Government, for refreshed guidelines from the chief medical officer on physical activity, which will indicate the importance of encouraging greater movement among the population. As I've said before in this Chamber, some 30 per cent of the population of Wales don't do anything—any physical activity, I mean—and I think it is important that we should both set an example and also encourage people.

Minister, I do hope you'll have the good grace to join me in congratulating Cardiff Metropolitan University football club, which is celebrating becoming the first university to reach the UEFA Europa League after an exciting play-off against Bala Town on Sunday—I do apologise—where they won 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out. This means that Cardiff Met will move into the preliminary rounds, joining clubs from Luxembourg, San Marino, the Faroe Islands, Andorra, Kosovo, Gibraltar and Northern Ireland. I think the important point here is that it's a fantastic feat for a university club and will inspire many of the students at the university who are not elite sports people to take up some sport and get involved in active recreation. So, will you congratulate Cardiff Met?

Well, as the Assembly Member for Bala—although not a regular supporter of Bala Town, except on occasion—Bala Town have had their moment in Europe, as have Bangor City and others. But it is a great opportunity for Cardiff Met, and I do sincerely congratulate them. I benefit from living close to them when I'm here in Cardiff, and I do think it's important that we emphasise how the activity of sports science and the inspiration that is delivered from academic sports study permeates the whole of the university culture. There is an important issue, I think, in the life cycle here: that, very often, pupils of school age will be very active physically, but only those who get involved with clubs tend to continue their activity into the teenage years and student life. And I think it is important that we celebrate the culture of sporting success and the culture of successful clubs across our further and higher education system.

I'm sure that the Minister will agree with me that one of the biggest challenges is to encourage women and girls to carry on participating in physical activity, particularly, as he's just said in his response to David Melding, after leaving school age. Amongst that group, women from minority ethnic communities are particularly vulnerable and often particularly excluded. Will the Minister undertake today to have some further discussions with the Minister for equalities to see what more can be done to encourage local authority facilities to actively promote the participation of women and girls from minority communities? I would also, in that context, suggest that there is a continuation of provision of women-only facilities for some activities, such as swimming, because for some women from some of those communities it isn't possible for them culturally to participate when there are men present? I think this is particularly important in the context of providing appropriate changing facilities, as well, since there is an increasing tendency to have open facilities, which, while those might be beneficial for families, may not be suitable for women, particularly women who have particular reasons to protect their bodily privacy.

Thank you for that. I'm very happy to formally agree that we should meet to discuss this issue specifically, but I'm pleased to say that, among the major sports that we promote, netball, which is an activity mainly, but not wholly, pursued by girls and women, is the fourth major sport that we fund. And, therefore, I think it is essential that we should always provide for gender equality to the extent that we can in participation in sports. That is partly through encouraging women's rugby and women's football, but also encouraging, indeed, separate opportunities for people to participate at a time convenient and suitable and acceptable to them, and we will pursue this discussion and, no doubt, we will both report back to you.