Sport England has docked £137,000 from England Hockey’s funding for grass roots sport because of missed participation targets. The cash will not, however, be lost to hockey with the money to be reinvested elsewhere in the game.
The number of people aged 16-25 playing hockey once a week dropped from 63,000 to 44,000 over a 12-month period to October 2013, according to the Sport England Active People Survey figures published in December. This is the figure that is of particular concern to Sport England.
Sport England’s Active People Survey results published in December 2013 showed that in total 86,900 people aged 16+ were participating in hockey at least once a week, down 22,300 from 2012 and below the even the 2008 figure of 86,900.
England Hockey’s overall target for the end of the four-year funding period (2016-17) is 126,200 people aged 16 and over playing hockey at least once a week – see this link for these numbers.
England Hockey’s response can be read, at length, here.
We are awaiting some further figures from Sport England and will update this story when we receive them.
