Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has any plans to increase the time pupils participate in physical education.

Physical education (PE) is a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the National Curriculum. All schools in England are expected to teach PE as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. It is up to schools to decide how much time to dedicate to PE and the government does not set central expectations.

The Chief Medical Officers have recommended that primary school pupils should be active for 60 minutes a day. The government’s ‘Childhood Obesity: Plan for Action’ recommends that least 30 minutes should be delivered in school every day, partly through PE but also through active break times, extra-curricular clubs, active lessons, or other sport and physical activity events. The department is supporting this through initiatives such as the Primary PE and Sport premium- doubling the premium to £320 million a year from September 2017 using revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport they offer and make improvements now that will benefit pupils joining the school in future years.