Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to promote active and healthy lifestyles among pensioners, including through access to affordable physical activity and active travel.

The Government recognises that reducing physical inactivity and promoting active, healthy lifestyles in people of all ages, including among pensioners, is important in helping people live longer, healthier lives, and is a key part of the Department’s shift from treatment to prevention.

The NHS Better Health Campaign promotes ways for people of all ages to move more, and signposts to digital support like the NHS Active 10 walking and NHS Couch to 5k app.

The Department supports the National Health Service, together with local authorities, to provide a range of community and social prescribing approaches to support older people, such as walking groups and aquatic/swimming classes.

The Government is promoting active and healthy lifestyles among pensioners through investment in walking and cycling infrastructure and community-based programmes that make active travel safer and more accessible for older adults, and has recently closed its consultation on the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, due to be published next year.