Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the report by ukactive that the Chief Medical Officer’s guidance is not being followed in schools, how they plan to ensure that children get the recommended 60 minutes of daily exercise.

The Government recognises the importance of encouraging children to become more active. Through the Primary Physical Education (PE) and Sport Premium, head teachers have already received over £300 million of ring-fenced funding to spend on improving PE and sport provision. Our research has found that schools have already increased the amount of curricular PE they are delivering by an average of 13 minutes since the introduction of the Premium. In addition, 83% of schools reported an increase in the levels of participation in extra-curricular activities and 96% observed improvements in pupils’ physical fitness. The interim research brief, 'PE and sport premium: an investigation in primary schools', was published in September 2014, and the final report will be published in the autumn.

The Department of Health also funds Change4Life Sports Clubs in schools which target less active children. An independent evaluation reported that in 2012-13 alone, clubs had engaged over 115,000 children. In primary schools, 75,000 children are now achieving 60 active minutes on most days of the week, an increase of 57%, and 38,000 children are now achieving 60 active minutes every day, an increase of 92%.