Government pledges equal access to school PE sports for boys and girls

The government has heeded the calls of the Lionesses after their historic Euro 2022 win and committed to providing equal access to all sports in PE for boys and girls, a minimum of two hours of PE a week and a multimillion‑pound investment in school sports and after‑school activities.

The day after the Wembley final, the Lionesses wrote an open letter to the Tory leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss laying out demands which are now being met.

Leah Williamson, the England captain, greeted the announcement – on International Women’s Day – by saying “this is the legacy that we want to live much longer than us as a team”. She thanked her Arsenal and England teammate Lotte Wubben‑Moy for being “a driving force behind this transformational change”.

Williamson said: “The success of the summer has inspired so many young girls to pursue their passion for football. We see it as our responsibility to open the doors for them to do so and this announcement makes that possible.”

The plans set out to make the same sports available to boys and girls, where wanted, and a minimum two hours of PE a week up to the end of year 11.The government said more than £600m would be provided over the next two years to improve PE and sports in primary schools and up toanother £57m to open more school sport facilities outside school hours, especially targeted at girls, disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs. Parity of provision for girls is to be rewarded with a Kitemark scheme.

Football Association figures published last July showed 72% of girls play as much football as boys in primary school but that the figure drops to 44% in secondary school and that only 40% of secondary schools offer girls the same access to