Sport England

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Sport England logo

Sport England is the brand name for the English Sports Council and is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport known as the DCM and S. Its role is to provide the strategic lead for sport through advising, investing in and promoting community sport in England. Its ambition is to get two million people more active in sport by 2012.

Sport England has two statutory functions: (1) a lottery distributor for sport; and (2) the protection of playing fields, through its role as a statutory consultee on planning applications that affect playing fields, under SI No. 1817 (1996) . The funding it distributes comes from both the Treasury and the National Lottery. Since 1994, it has invested over £2bn of Lottery funds and £300 million from the Exchequer into sports in England.

Derek Mapp resigned as Chair of Sport England on 29 November 2007 after 13 months in the post. This followed a request to do so from James Purnell, the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport. Jennie Price remains as the Chief Executive. Purnell has appointed Richard Lewis (former CE of the Rugby Football League) to review Sport England's funding priorities.

Sport England is organised into eight regions, each of which is governed by one of nine Regional Sports Boards (RSB). Each region is responsible for making local funding decisions as well as working closely with the local authorities, sports clubs and other relevant organisations in its area. Sport England's national Support Centre is located in Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, London WC1B 4SE. This is also the office for the London Region.

There are five National Sports Centres as part of Sport England's commitment to developing talent to ensure it reaches its full potential.

Sport England works with other organisations in sport to run a social marketing campaign designed to encourage people to take part in sport and active recreation. This campaign is called Everyday Sport.

Its Active Places website is designed to help the public find sports facilities anywhere in England. Searching can be through an interactive map, within a given locality or to discover more information about a known facility location.

Sport England commissioned the preparation of design advice to assist in the master planning of large residential and mixed use developments. The downloadable publication 'Active Design'(see below), published in 2007, aims to promote increased opportunities for people to be naturally active as part of their everyday life.