Dr. Una May:

I am happy to start and will then pass over to the Department. In the development of our diversity and inclusion policy, we carried out research and specific focus groups, targeting particular representative bodies from the LGBT background. Ms McHugh will provide some detail around that work. All the different representative bodies identified the barriers to participation in sport for people from an LGBT background. We have spelled out this issue in our policy. Our actions stemming from that policy will provide support in this respect.

Regarding a funding stream, our policy has always been that funding for any of the initiatives we carry out is channelled into the sectors that we support directly, first and foremost through the national governing bodies and local sports partnerships. We do this because we want to ensure there is inclusion and that, instead of us a rolling out initiatives for specific groups individually, people from all different backgrounds are included in the sporting community, for example, people from disadvantaged groups, ethnic backgrounds and gender groups.

The tournaments issue is one for the Department, which is due to roll out a major events policy in the near future. Before I ask the Department to comment, though, I will ask Ms McHugh to explain our work in this area. We have been rolling out campaigns. For example, we are working closely with Sporting Pride on rolling out a partnership campaign on the campus for two weeks’ time. We have a number of initiatives under way.