It is important that all children are given the opportunity to try different sports and develop their abilities, which might lead to a professional career for some. My right Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, recently made a commitment to the development of a school sport and activity action plan to engage all pupils in sport at school. This work will look at the opportunities that are given to girls.

The government will be engaging with professional sports bodies to develop the action plan. Existing programmes such as Primary Futures and Premier League Primary Stars help pupils to understand the connection between learning and their futures from an early age, including through access to sports personalities and sports-themed maths and English resources.

Through the Primary PE and Sport premium, the government has invested over £920 million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013. From September 2017, this funding was doubled to £320 million per year and allows schools to offer different sports of interest to pupils, participation in more competitive sport and offer extra-curricular sports that appeal to all pupils to develop healthy habits from an early age and a lifelong love of sport and physical activity.

Schools have a legal responsibility to secure independent careers guidance for year 9 to 11 pupils on the full range of post-16 education and training options. From September, we are extending the duty to years 8 to 13 and introducing an equivalent requirement through college funding agreements for 16 to 18-year-olds in further education.

This will help more young people to access the support they need at key transition points, promoting informed decision making about GCSEs, AS levels, university courses and other education and training options including apprenticeships. The Department will publish guidance to support schools and colleges to take on their new responsibilities.

We recognise that choices about higher education are particularly complex and want to improve the information available to students. The Key Information Set (KIS) was launched in September 2012 to provide comparable information on each university course. This can be found at unistats website on direct.gov.¹¹ http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/

Helping pupils to progress from school successfully to the next stage of their education, and onwards into work, is a core function of schools. By introducing the careers duty, we have created a new legal basis for schools to secure independent and impartial careers guidance to meet the needs of their pupils.

The duty is underpinned by statutory guidance which sets expectations about the type and quality of support that schools should offer. We have also published a practical guide containing examples of policy and practice which schools can draw on. Schools can access high quality support from careers providers who have achieved

a national quality standard for careers guidance. This quality standard will assist schools in making well-informed decisions about which provider to use.

An Ofsted thematic review of careers guidance, reporting this summer, will assess the impact of the new duty.

Ministers have had frequent and widespread discussions on careers advice. The Government also received 327 responses to a public consultation on extending access to careers guidance. The views of respondents, including schools and education sector representatives, have informed our decision to extend the duty on schools to years 8-13 from September 2013.

The House of Commons Education Committee scrutinised the impact of the new careers duty through their recent inquiry into young people's careers guidance. The Committee received written and oral evidence from a range of witnesses from the education sector. The Government will shortly respond formally to the Committee's report. Ofsted's forthcoming thematic review of careers guidance will inform future improvements in the quality of careers provision.

Young people take on board information and advice in many ways and will require access to different sources of support at different stages. Schools should determine the most appropriate forms of careers guidance based on the needs and circumstances of their pupils.

To give effect to this policy, we have placed a duty on schools to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance for their pupils. The legal provisions were scrutinised in the House of Commons and the House of Lords during the passage of the Education Bill. A wide range of stakeholders submitted evidence to inform debates, including on the appropriateness of different types of careers provision. Statutory guidance underpinning the duty places a clear expectation on schools to secure access to independent face-to-face careers guidance where it is the most suitable support for young people to make successful transitions.

We have published Education Destination Measures showing the percentage of students progressing to further education or training in a school, Further Education or sixth form college, apprenticeship or Higher Education institution. This will show how effective schools are in supporting a successful transition into an appropriate and sustainable course, including through the provision of independent careers guidance.