Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the risks of obesity and the importance of physical recreation are being taught in schools.

The Department for Education is seeing encouraging signs of progress on tackling obesity, with rates in children falling to 14% in 2012, the lowest level of child obesity since 1998. The Government is taking forward a range of activities to continue this trend.

As part of the new national curriculum, which comes into force from September 2014, the programmes of study for both physical education and science include content on the importance of a healthy lifestyle. All pupils aged between 5 and 14 will learn about cooking and nutrition, which will be compulsory at key stage 3 for the first time. Children will learn the importance of eating good, tasty, nutritious food at school and beyond through the School Food Plan.

The Government is determined to embed an enjoyment of sport and physical activity from an early age, so that children understand the importance of keeping fit and develop a lifetime habit of healthy activity. Through the primary PE and sport premium we are providing over £450m of ringfenced funding across academic years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16. This goes directly to primary schools, to be spent on the improvement of PE and sport to ensure that all pupils develop a healthy lifestyle.

The Department of Health is providing Change4Life Sports Clubs in 10,000 primary and secondary schools, which encourage children to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Schools are using their primary PE and sport premium to supplement the Change4Life programme and so far more than 225,000 pupils have benefited from that programme.