Officially, the grass-roots sports agency will not divulge its plans, saying it is "not in a position to discuss the project at this point".

However, tucked away on page 78 of its latest annual report is an entry giving a tantalising glimpse of its intentions.

Alluding to a dormant subsidiary called Caversham Lakes Trust Limited, the report serves notice that the company "is likely to be required within the next 12 months for a special project".

To be funded with a Lottery grant, this project, it says, would be to "support behaviour change in women within sport".

It gives no other details.

Sport England acknowledges that it needs to take "a different approach" if it is to increase the number of women who play sport and do physical activity on a regular basis.

Last December, it put the number of women aged 16 or over who played sport once a week at 6.83 million.

Around a third of women, 30.3 per cent, play sport once a week in England compared to 40.3 per cent of men, according to the latest available data ©Getty Images



However, a Parliamentary report on Women and Sport published last month by the cross-party Culture Media and Sport Select Committee, emphasised that the "gap between men's and women's participation in sport remains".

The last full year of data, for the year to April 2014, showed, the report said, that "40.9 per cent of men play sport once a week compared to 30.3 per cent of women (nearly two million more men than women)".

UK Sport and Equalities Minister Helen Grant told the Committee: "I want participation going up across the board and I want the gender gap to be extinguished."

Around 15 months ago, Sport England announced what it called "an intensive sporting experiment" to get more women and girls active and to tackle this gender gap.

Under the banner, "I Will If You Will" and concentrating on the town of Bury, the project aims both to test what sports are attractive to women and to create an environment in which "women and girls doing sport is seen as 'normal' by both women and men".

As Sport England revealed in written evidence to the Select Committee, Bury "will shortly offer small grants (up to £1,000) to clubs or groups who need some investment to support coaches and activities directly working with women and girls".