4. Does the Welsh Government have an elite sports strategy? OQ59052

Sport Wales is the national organisation responsible for developing and promoting sport and physical activity in Wales and is doing so in line with its vision and strategy.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. You could have fooled me, as the strategy has not been updated since the initial release in 2015, eight years ago. Half of those aims relate to sporting bodies themselves, as you've just said. The rest needed Welsh Government's direct funding, which, of course, has been found lacking. The aim of the last strategy for Wales was to be the No. 1 Commonwealth Games sporting nation and to increase the number and quality of athletes on the UK world-class programmes. This hasn't happened.

Minister, the Government is failing elite sports. Labour have made no investment for decades. There's not been and still isn't any vision from this Welsh Government. We see no international swimming pool in north Wales, no rugby venue in the north, and we still have no equality of provision across Wales when it comes to facilities. As we see elite athletes and junior teams having to self-fund and travel to England to use the basic facilities, they are just not supported how they should be. Elite athletes and teams are not getting the investment they need or deserve, yet I see the Deputy Minister, of course, quick to celebrate any success when successes for our sportspeople are clearly in spite of this Welsh Government and the lack of funding, not because of them. When will we see the strategy updated and a true vision for elite sport in Wales?

Of course, the vision for sport is the replacement strategy, so the strategy that you're talking about hasn't been updated, it's been replaced. We now have the vision for sport that seeks to promote Wales to the world through the performance of our elite athletes and our sporting excellence. The Sport Wales sport strategy aims to deliver that success for Wales on the world stage through a holistic approach to developing athletes and creating environments where they can thrive. As I'm sure Laura Jones is well aware, Wales is an integral part of the UK high-performance system, so we don't sit alone in this and we are part of the Olympic and Paralympic Sport Wales athletes programme for team GB on the highest sporting stage. You will know yourself how many Welsh athletes contribute to the GB team at the Olympics and the success that they have had through that programme. It's just simply not true to say that there is no investment in sport in Wales. Our revenue budget to Sport Wales is £23 million in the last year. It will be another £24 million in the next financial year, and we have an annual capital budget for sport in Wales of £8 million a year. We've provided an increased in-year allocation this year on capital investment in sport of £1.54 million.

Now, the elite pathways for sport are developed through the national governing bodies. They are not the direct responsibility of Sport Wales; they are developed through the national governing bodies. It is also not true to say that Sport Wales doesn't support and fund individual elite athletes, because they do through the National Lottery and they receive support through Elite Cymru, which is part of Sport Wales. They will receive funding through that route when they are referred by their national governing bodies. So, our investment in sport is partly through the lottery and it is partly through the direct funding that Sport Wales receives. As I've said, we are part of international organisations and bodies as well.

We cannot overestimate the importance of lottery funding to individuals. For the major team sports, such as football and rugby, player development is carried out by amateur and professional clubs, with professional football clubs having academies. Where support is needed is for younger players in sports such as tennis; players who need to travel to national and international tournaments and who need high-quality coaching. What support is being provided, either directly or indirectly, to these young people?

The support for team sports goes through the national governing bodies. Individual support can be afforded, as I've said, for individuals if they are referred through their national governing body through to Sport Wales.