Pupils: Sports

(asked on 25th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of schoolgirls aged between 11 and 18 participated in at least 30 minutes of sport at least once a week in 2018.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 1st July 2019

The first set of data from Sport England’s world-leading Active Lives: Children and Young People survey was released in December 2018. It shows that 33.6% of girls in years 7-8 and 27.7% of girls in years 9-11 do 30 minutes or more of physical activity per day. Activity is measured in daily levels, to align with the Chief Medical Officers’ guidance for children and young people.

Levels of activity for girls aged over 16 are captured by the Active Lives (adult) survey, which has a slightly different methodology and so cannot be directly compared. Both surveys are available on Sport England’s website.

Government is committed to addressing the gender gap in physical activity levels for boys and girls, including the drop-off in engagement from primary to secondary school. It is important that girls have access to the right sporting opportunities, both in and out of school.

This is something government committed to tackle in the Sporting Future strategy, and which will be addressed as part of the new School Sport and Activity Action Plan which will be published before the summer recess.

Reticulating Splines