Baroness Davies of Devonport (Con)

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, for bringing up this subject. He mentioned the loss of pools. I add that 1,200 pools are now more than 40 years old and are coming to the end of their maintenance life. We are losing 25 pools a year at the moment, which are not being replaced. Obviously, wages are up, energy bills are now twice what they were before Covid and those facilities are very expensive to maintain. The loss of that water space means that children are risking swimming in dangerous places instead of in swimming pools, which is where they should swim. In the 1980s, I gave evidence to the Select Committee that helped to get swimming on the national curriculum. We are not getting our kids swimming. As mentioned, 25% are not learning. At Easter, I went to see a school where they brought a pool in and managed to get 150 classes in instead of its normal 10 because it costs £250 to bus their children to the local swimming pool. Can the Government please tell me that they will think outside the box about how we make sure that our children are taught to swim, because it is a vital skill, not a luxury?