Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of levels of physical activity among adults in South Basildon and East Thurrock compared with national averages.

The Department produces local authority estimates of physical activity among adults aged 19 years old and over. Data is not available for parliamentary constituencies. The following table shows the proportion of physically active adults, those aged 19 years old and over, for the Thurrock and Basildon local authority districts, as well as for England, for the last two years where data is available:

The comparisons between the local authority and England estimates take into account the confidence intervals around each estimate. The confidence interval gives a range of values in which the true value is likely to lie if data was available for all adult residents rather than just the sample who took part in the survey. If the confidence intervals do not overlap, then the values are considered to be different and can be described as “higher” or “lower”. If the confidence intervals do overlap, then the values are described as “similar”.

Information on the interventions to increase physical activity among adults in these areas can be found in the Active Essex: Find Your Active Lifestyle partnership and their ‘Fit for the future’ 10 year strategy, from 2021 to 2031, as well as the implementation plan for 2025/26, which includes additional support to six key areas, including Basildon and Thurrock, focusing on reducing inequalities for residents facing the greatest barriers to physical activity and sport. Further information on the Active Essex: Find Your Active Lifestyle partnership and their ‘Fit for the future’ 10 year strategy is avaiable, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.activeessex.org/

https://www.activeessex.org/about-us/our-strategy/