The Education Secretary has announced that schools in England will benefit from £320 million from the PE and Sport Premium during the academic year 2020-21.

The PE and Sport Premium is designed to help children get an active start in life, supporting primary schools to improve the quality of their PE and sport provision so that pupils experience the benefits of regular exercise – from becoming healthier both mentally and physically to improved behaviour and better academic achievement.

Gavin Williamson has today (Sunday 5 July) confirmed that funding for the PE and Sport Premium, which was doubled in 2017, will once again continue at this higher rate of £320 million next year. It builds on the ambitious School Sport and Activity Action Plan launched last year and underlines the importance of PE and sport in the Government’s manifesto.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, said:

During these challenging times, it has become clearer to me than ever the importance of keeping active and how it benefits not just our physical health but also our ability to pay attention, our mood and our mental health too.

Every family will have had a different experience of the pandemic, and I know that many children will have missed time spent outdoors with their friends – that’s why it’s so important that ahead of a full return to school in September, schools get the certainty they need to prepare their PE and sports activities for next year.

The Department for Education has also confirmed today that any PE and Sport Premium funding from the current academic year (2019-20) that schools were unable to use as a result of the coronavirus pandemic can be brought forward to use in the next academic year, giving school leaders an opportunity to develop or add to their existing provision, or to make improvements that will benefit pupils joining the school in future years.

The PE and Sport Premium is a ring-fenced grant for English primary schools to provide additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE, sport and physical activity. Allocations to schools are determined by a formula based on pupil numbers. The average one form entry primary school will receive roughly £18,000 per year.

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, said:

Being active is absolutely vital for our children’s mental and physical health. This £320m package will ensure sport is provided in primary schools throughout the country so children get their 60 active minutes a day. I’m grateful to all those in sport who have stepped up with workout videos and ideas to keep families healthy over the last few months, as it’s clear getting Britain fit is part of the Covid fightback.

Public Health Minister Jo Churchill said:

The physical and mental benefits of regular exercise can never be underestimated, and I believe all children should have the chance to have fun playing sport and enjoy high quality PE lessons.

Lockdown has been a testing time for many of us, not least for children who have had their usual routines turned upside down, and I’m delighted they’ll be able to benefit from new and improved sporting opportunities once they’re back in school.

Sue Wilkinson MBE, CEO of Association for Physical Education said:

afPE is delighted that the Department for Education has announced the continued funding of the Primary PE and Sport Premium, for the next academic year.

The Government’s commitment since 2013 has demonstrated the importance of physical education and school sport and in light of current circumstances further investment is crucial. This acknowledgment is testament to its importance in ensuring the best outcomes for all children and young people are achieved. We know this investment will have a significant impact on teachers’ confidence and competence.

Youth Sport Trust Chief Executive Ali Oliver said:

As young people return to school, their wellbeing will be one of the biggest priorities in education. Sport and Physical Education have an essential role to play in children’s recovery, particularly following a period of lockdown which has seen too many either become less active or completely inactive.

We are delighted that the primary PE and Sport Premium for 2020/21 has been confirmed at this critical time. Many primary schools will be using this funding to improve provision of PE and sport and to develop teachers’ confidence to deliver it, positioning PE and sport at the core of schools’ work to improve pupils’ health, wellbeing and ability to learn.

Sport England’s Chief Executive Tim Hollingsworth said:

We welcome the confirmation of the investment into primary schools for PE, school sport, activity and play. It’s never been more needed given the massive disruption to children’s activity levels during lockdown with our research showing that the number of children meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines has dropped from almost 47% to 19%. Over a third of children say they’ve had less chance to be active because schools are shut. When schools return this welcomed investment will play an important part in encouraging schools to prioritise PE and getting children active – which is important not just for their physical health but because being active builds mental resilience and helps children achieve academically.

THE Culture Secretary has announced he has brokered agreements that will allow selected international sporting events and production on some of the biggest film and television productions to get underway safely this summer, in a major boost for the country and our economy.

A number of sports stars and their support teams, alongside international film and high-end television stars, directors and producers, will be exempt from quarantine – where they are essential to the event or production.

Sporting authorities, event organisers and the screen industry will need to follow Government covid secure guidance and put in place stringent protocols to ensure that they have a minimal impact on public health.

Exempted individuals will live and work in controlled “bubbled” environments behind closed doors.

The measures for sporting events in England mean that Silverstone, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the British Grand Prix, will be able to stage races on 2 and 9 August.

It also provides the green light for a summer of international cricket, Champions League and Europa League football, the PGA British Masters Championship and the World Snooker Championships to take place. Other major darts, horse racing and other sporting events are also expected to follow.

Exemptions will be limited to those essential to staging these events, including the sports stars, event officials, coaches, medics, mechanics and incoming members of the media.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:

I’m very pleased that we’ve agreed exemptions from border health measures for a limited number of athletes and events staff, which means the British summer of sport is back on.

I am grateful to the sports governing bodies who have worked closely with us to put in place stringent protocols to ensure these events can go ahead safely.

It will mean that fans of the British Grand Prix, international cricket and Champions League football can look forward to yet more sporting action on home soil – a further boost to our national recovery.

As a kick-start for the UK’s world-leading screen industries, new government guidance will also be published this week that will allow small numbers of essential cast and crew to travel to the UK without having to quarantine for fourteen days.

It means production can safely get going on some of the biggest international blockbusters being filmed on our shores.

This week the Culture Secretary spoke to American actor and director Tom Cruise about how the exemption will allow production to resume on Mission Impossible 7 and 8, which are being shot at the Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden added:

The world’s biggest blockbusters and high-end TV shows are made in Britain.

Our creativity, expertise and highly successful tax reliefs for our screen industries means that we are an in-demand location that in turn delivers a great return for our economy.

We want the industry to bounce back and exempting small numbers of essential cast and crew from quarantine is part of our continued commitment to getting cameras rolling safely again.

This is welcome news not just for film lovers but the thousands employed across the screen industries and the sectors it supports.

The exemption applies to those individuals coming into England specifically to work on film and television productions which qualify as British under one of the government’s cultural tests or official co-production treaties.

Any such individuals will be required to remain for 14 days within a ‘bubble’ that includes only their place of accommodation and production location.

The screen industry has made considerable progress preparing to resume work, including through the BFI’s industry COVID-19 Screen Sector Task Force and the swift delivery of the British Film Commission’s new production guidance.

The exemption recognises the ability of international productions to isolate cast and crew from the general public, and that individual studios and production companies have developed practical solutions for safe working practices, including rolling out new training programmes for screen industry workers filming in studios and on location.

Adrian Wootton OBE, Chief Executive of the British Film Commission, said:

Today’s immensely welcome news is also a clear recognition of the importance of the film and high-end TV inward investment sector to the UK’s economy. The sector was worth over £3bn in 2019, and has a clear role to play in our economic recovery following the lockdown.

While the British Film Commission COVID-19 production guidance published last month is already helping to restart production safely, this considered exemption will allow international cast and crew back in the country, and back on set, to continue work on the blockbuster films and high-end TV productions at our biggest studio facilities.

Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive, said:

It’s great news that film and television production have been granted quarantine exemption, one of the key outcomes from the work of the BFI’s Screen Sector Task Force, which in tandem with the UK’s COVID-19 industry guidance, means that film and television productions that are reliant on international talent, will be able to go ahead, generating jobs and securing a pipeline of new work for those working across the wider industry.

Film and television are worth £9.9 billion to the UK economy and being able to get production back up and running as quickly as possible is going to help our industry and its 77,000 production workers contribute to the UK’s economic recovery.

The announcement follows the Government’s latest review of its public health measures for all UK arrivals from overseas, and marks the latest phase of the measured approach around easing the burdens of lockdown in a way that is expected to keep the R rate, the average number of secondary infections produced by 1 infected person, down.

Notes to editors:

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has published a range of guidance in relation to elite sport over recent weeks.

On 13 May ‘stage one’ guidance was published, outlining conditions for a return to individual performance training at official elite training venues while maintaining social distancing from teammates and other people outside their households. This included safeguards such as the deep cleaning of facilities and the screening of athletes and staff for coronavirus symptoms before they can enter the training venue by an appropriately trained healthcare professional.

On 25 May, DCMS published ‘stage two’ guidance, outlining the conditions for elite athletes to resume competitive, close contact training at official elite training venues, so that players could get match fit under carefully controlled medical conditions.

On 30 May, DCMS published ‘stage three’ guidance – the conditions for elite athletes and professional sportsmen and women to resume competitive sport behind closed doors safely in England from 1 June. This opened the door for the first domestic live action in almost three months.

Stage four guidance, which will outline the conditions, facilities and processes that will need to be implemented for all cross-border sporting competition to take place behind closed doors, will be published in due course.

Individuals will be required to carry a letter from the studio responsible for the production which must include the following information: name; date of birth; passport number; UK address; production dates and location; contact phone number for the relevant studio; and DCMS certificate number to prove that the production has qualified as British and therefore meets the terms of the exemption.

Under Phase II of the Somaliland Development Fund (SDF2) programme, the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands have approved four agreements with the Somaliland Government to improve critical infrastructure to support economic growth. These projects were prioritised by Phase II of the Government of Somaliland’s National Development Plan, and will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across Somaliland. The new agreements, supporting projects on roads, agricultural facilities, water systems and fisheries will spur economic growth benefitting the region and helping contribute towards a stable, peaceful and resilient Somaliland while improving its resilience to future pandemics through enhanced water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure.

These projects include:

Project 1:Rebuilding of Burao–Sheikh-Berbera road in Togdheer and Sahil regions

The rebuilding of the Burao to Berbera road will include 82km of full asphalt concrete overlay, the resurfacing of bridges and renewal of drainage systems. Improving connectivity between Somaliland’s port and its second largest city will reduce travel time and costs benefiting the 50,000 members of the public who use this road regularly and contributing to economic development by enhancing service delivery and boosting trade, particularly in the livestock, agriculture, and fishery sectors.

Project 2:Sustainable land management in Awdal and Maroodijeh regions:

The project will improve the agricultural production of small farmers through soil and water conservation, research, extension and farmer training. This project will target the agricultural areas of Durdur Ad Upper Catchment in Awdal and Maroodijeh Upper Catchment in Maroodijeh.

Project 3: Support to the Hargeisa Water Agency, supplying water to the people of Hargeisa.

The SDF2 will continue its support to the Hargeisa Water Agency (HWA), which supplies clean water to the people of Hargeisa. This project will allow HWA to extract an additional 4,000 m3 of water each day from Laasdhure aquifer. This project will increase the water available in Hargeisa by more than 20%, to 23,000m3 per day – enough to meet the needs of an additional 200,000 people.

Project 4: Construction of Maydh fishing jetty in the Sanaag region:

The Maydh Jetty will improve interconnectivity by sea between Berbera and the 750,000 people living in the hinterland of Sanaag and parts of Togdheer, spurring regional economic growth as well as facilitating the transport of fish to markets. This support will boost food security, employment and incomes.

The British Ambassador to Somalia, Ben Fender, said:

The UK is committed to supporting Somaliland lay the foundations for sustainable economic growth. We are announcing today a set of major infrastructure investments in four sectors across Somaliland. We will be upgrading the road from Burco to Berbera, supporting agricultural production in Awdal and Moroodijeh, increasing by 20% the water in Hargeisa, and building a jetty in Maydh to enable exports from Sanaag and Togdheer. These projects will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by creating jobs and unlocking the region’s economic potential. At a time of huge challenges for Somaliland, including tackling COVID-19, this demonstrates the UK’s commitment to the people of Somaliland.

The Danish Ambassador to Somalia, Mette Knudsen, said:

Denmark warmly welcomes the approval of these four important SDF projects and the solidarity shown by the Government of Somaliland and SDF donors to identify priority needs, ensure regional and sectoral balance, and align SDF investments with the priorities of Somaliland’s NDPII. The investments are particularly timely in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic effects that are only just beginning to emerge. We are confident that these investments will have catalytic effects to spur Somaliland’s economic development and to help support and sustain Somaliland’s economic recovery from this terrible pandemic.

The Netherlands Ambassador to Somalia, Frans Makken, said:

The Kingdom of Netherlands has enjoyed cordial and collaborative relations with the Somaliland Government over many years; and through the projects in the SDF2, the Netherlands is happy to be part of the contribution to strengthening the social contract between the government and its people. These projects will strengthen the positive social and economic growth trajectory of Somaliland.