Independent decision-making Board for Sports Winter Survival Package confirmed
Following the Government’s announcement of a £300 million Sports Winter Survival Package to protect the immediate futures of major spectator sports affected by coronavirus restrictions in England, the composition of the independent decision-making Board has been confirmed.
The Board, which will meet over the coming weeks to oversee final funding allocations with the administrative support of Sport England, will be formed of:
- Sir Ian Cheshire (Chair), Chairman of Barclays Bank UK PLC
- Lord Patel of Bradford, Chairman of Social Work England
- Denise Lewis, OBE, British sports presenter and Olympic heptathlon gold medalist
- Nick Timothy CBE, non-executive board member of the Department for Education and member of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee
- Ben Dean, Director of Sport, Gambling and Ceremonials, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
- Tim Hollingsworth, OBE, Chief Executive, Sport England
- Sally Munday MBE, Chief Executive, UK Sport
- Natalie Ceeney CBE, Vice-Chair of Sport England and chair of Innovate Finance
Preliminary allocations announced by the Government last month have been made on a needs based assessment basis and reflect the submissions made to DCMS from the individual sports.
Each sport will now need to go through an application process to access the support they are eligible for under the final design of the scheme, with the final decisions being made by the independent decision-making board. More details will be announced by Sport England in due course.
It is expected that the first tranche of funding will be distributed in the coming weeks.