Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of adopting a long-term strategy to help improve physical activity and wellbeing in young people.

The Department is working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care to provide children with greater opportunities to do 60 minutes of sport and physical activity every day inside and outside school.

The Government set out initial actions in the School Sport and Activity Action Plan in July 2019. The Department has worked to adapt to the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak and is delivering on the actions set out in the plan. This includes providing £11.6 million to Sport England to understand and overcome barriers to schools opening their sport facilities, funding nine teaching school networks to develop and deliver Physical Education (PE) continued professional development programmes and Sport England has provided £1.5 million of National Lottery funding to launch a new digital schools’ platform, designed to reach girls who have disengaged from PE. The Department subsequently announced £10.1 million in funding to support schools to open sports facilities outside of the school day.

The Government has confirmed its intention to publish an update to the action plan following the Spending Review later this year and is working closely with sport organisations through the School Sport and Activity Sector Forum to discuss the Government’s long term approach to PE and school sport.