Physical Inactivity (Public Health)

Grahame Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2014 Westminster Hall

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blaenau Gwent (Nick Smith) on securing this debate, and I congratulate the Backbench Business Committee on allocating time for a subject whose importance is increasingly being recognised. The Select Committee on Health, of which my good and hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) and I are members, will be holding an inquiry on the impact of physical activity and diet on health, so this is a timely debate. I am sure that the evidence compiled by the Select Committee will be brought to the Minister’s attention, and that appropriate action will be taken.

Many hon. Members who have contributed to the debate have covered the general subject areas, so in the interests of brevity I do not intend to repeat the statistics, but I will mention some specific issues that affect my constituency of Easington, County Durham in the north-east of England. The figures on physical inactivity quoted by hon. Members earlier in the debate are even higher in my region. Some 32% of people in County Durham are classed as physically inactive, and all the projections indicate that the problem will get worse. Higher degrees of inactivity are predicted by 2030.

International comparisons show that our levels of inactivity are twice those in Germany and France. I thought we would be rather more active than the United States, but our levels of inactivity are 20% higher. It is generally recognised that physical inactivity is a considerable public health problem. The numbers of people who are likely to suffer as a consequence of physical inactivity were identified earlier in the debate. It has been suggested that physical activity can help to combat, or at least delay the onset of, conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and even dementia.

The costs are not just for the individual; there are also costs for communities and our economy. There are various estimates of the cost to the UK economy, and I have seen a figure of £20 billion a year, so there are direct costs associated with the health issues. My hon. Friend said that £9 billion a year is spent on costs associated with treating type 2 diabetes, but many other health issues are also caused by inactivity. There are also indirect costs such as, for example, lost days of work and low productivity. Employers need to take note. Some 16 million working days are lost every year due to obesity-related illnesses, so improving workplace health could have an immense impact on individual businesses and the economy. It is in everyone’s interests to address physical inactivity.

There have been some welcome improvements, and hon. Members have mentioned local authorities that are trying to prioritise physical activity, but local authorities are facing considerable pressures as a consequence of cuts in central Government funding, which have inevitably had an impact on their ability to deliver activities and opportunities to engage in physical activity. My local authority, Durham county council, is one of the hardest hit, and such authorities face some of the greatest challenges in relation to physical inactivity. Such authorities have seen the deepest cuts to their overall budgets. Indeed, 13 of the 15 local authorities with the most inactive populations are located in areas that are considered most deprived or more deprived. Despite facing huge challenges, particularly public health challenges, Durham county council has had to implement £135 million of cuts in three years, with another £44 million of cuts in the pipeline.

[Mr Mike Weir (in the Chair)]

Order. Time is up, I am afraid.

--- Later in debate ---

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mr Weir. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blaenau Gwent (Nick Smith) on securing this debate and all colleagues across the House who supported the application for it. We have heard some important contributions by hon. Members from all parties.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank the many organisations that are doing an important job to get Britain moving—hon. Members mentioned many of them—including ukactive, Sustrans and StreetGames. I had the pleasure of joining Living Streets on a walk to work back in May, to celebrate national walking month and the benefits of walking to work, so I have seen first hand the fantastic work that it does. I also thank my hon. Friend for mentioning pedometers. Many hon. Members measure their steps on a daily basis. I am just on 2,000 already today and on my way to securing my 10,000 a day.

I share hon. Members’ concerns about the place of physical activity in our society. Just a few generations ago, physical activity was an integral part of daily life, yet today it is becoming ever less a part of our daily routines. The opportunity to move and be active in modern life has declined dramatically: advances in technology mentioned by hon. Members, the rise in passive entertainment options, community safety concerns, roads that are not safe for pedestrians and cyclists, and limited playgrounds and green spaces are just a few of the reasons why.

We have heard the statistics, but they are worth reiterating. In some parts of the UK, more than 40% of the adult population is classed as inactive and a quarter of all adults in England are failing to do enough physical activity to benefit their health. Nearly half of all 11 to 25-year-olds in England—more than 4.5 million individuals —fail to achieve the chief medical officer’s recommended levels of physical activity. This is deeply concerning. Our nation’s children and young people are not getting the activity that they need to stay strong, fit, healthy and happy, which is something that will inevitably affect them in later life.

As we heard, insufficient levels of physical activity are estimated to cost more than £7.5 billion nationally. Other figures have also been mentioned. That sum is broken down to just over £1 billion in the NHS, £5.5 billion in lost productivity and £1 billion in premature mortality among the working-age population. My hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris) also mentioned the staggering 16 million days lost in the workplace, which we must be concerned about and take action on.

More than 1 million children are classed as obese and a third of children leaving primary school are classed as obese or overweight. We know that the status quo is not working. If we are to make the NHS financially sustainable in the 21st century, it follows that we need to have the most ambitious plans for physical activity, to contend with those lifestyle diseases that the NHS is increasingly responding to.

We know that physical activity is the simplest and cheapest route to good health and staying well. Moving from inactivity to activity is one of the easiest first lifestyle changes to make. This has been looked at academically and found to be easier than altering diet, stopping smoking or reducing drinking—and it can cost next to nothing, too. However, the issue is about more than health; it is also about people fulfilling their potential and making the maximum contribution. We know that children who are more active are more likely to achieve better exam results and earn more throughout their lives. I echo the concerns of my hon. Friend the Member for Blaenau Gwent about lower levels of physical activity in more deprived communities. I should be keen to hear the Minister respond to that issue.

Put simply, physical activity and sport builds strong people and strong communities. Yet for an activity that brings such universal health benefits, there seems to be very little centrally driven support for its promotion. We have neither a way of accurately measuring the physical activity people take, nor consistent messages about what level of physical activity people should be taking. Until recently, the guideline for adults was for them to take 30 minutes or more of physical activity of moderate intensity on at least five days a week. That is a minimum of two and a half hours of physical activity per week.

In 2008, the health survey for England measured physical activity among adults by means of a questionnaire. Some 39% of men and 29% of women reported that they met the recommended minimum level of physical activity. However, when accelerometers were used on a group to measure their physical activity objectively, the real percentages were actually 6% and 4%. That was complex enough, but to make things more challenging, in 2011 new guidelines were produced by the UK’s four chief medical officers that are particularly complex—I shall not read them out; I struggle to understand exactly what the recommendations are.

There are other issues to consider, too. The active people survey does not actually measure activity and does not include recreational walking or recreational cycling. We no longer even have a way of measuring children’s participation in school sport, because the school sports survey, which measured the proportion of pupils receiving two hours of curriculum PE and the proportion participating in at least three hours of “high quality” PE a week, was scrapped in 2010. So, too, were the regulations that previously tracked schools’ travel patterns. Will the Minister share with us any plans to clarify this confusing picture and introduce a more consistent way of measuring physical activity? Are there any plans to reintroduce the school sports survey and school travel survey?

Again I share concerns raised by hon. Members about the Olympic legacy in our country, despite the huge progress made under the previous Labour Government. In 2002, just 25% of children undertook two hours of PE and sport in school, but by the end of the previous Labour’s Government time in office this had been raised to 93%. The previous Labour Government also created 422 school sports partnerships and 2,300 school sport co-ordinators, covering every school. It was my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) who promised a “golden decade of sport”, kicked off by the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012. Yet a series of decisions has meant that these ambitions have not quite been realised under this Government.

The school sport partnerships—the local networks of schools and PE teachers—which had quietly been achieving notable success in getting students across England to be more physically active during school hours, have been abandoned; playing fields in some areas have been sold off; and school sport targets have been removed. We heard earlier this month that the borough that hosted the Olympic games is the least physically active in England.

[Grahame M. Morris]

Will my hon. Friend acknowledge the impact that cuts in local government have had, particularly on youth services? In national youth week last week, a number of youth clubs, including in Peterlee in my area, were reporting that they may have to close because of funding cuts.

[Luciana Berger]

I will move on to that point in a second. I was interested in the remarks made by the hon. Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson). I have seen first hand some young people in my constituency who have taken part in the national citizen service, but that is just a few young people. At the same time, throughout the country, we have seen devastating cuts to our youth services. I want all young people to have access to good services. In a moment, I will mention my concerns about local authority cuts.

I should be interested in hearing from the Minister what work the Government are doing to mobilise all the different sectors, industries and organisations that have a role in getting Britain moving. My hon. Friend the Member for Easington mentioned people with dementia. We need particularly to pay more attention to and focus more on older people.

I am keen to hear what the Government are doing to encourage councils, which have the delivery system, to open up their parks, improve access to leisure centres and swimming pools, and make walking, running and cycling a key consideration of developments. However, I echo the concerns of my hon. Friend the Member for Easington about cuts sustained by local authorities throughout the country. My own area in Liverpool has had its budget cut by 56% and it is struggling to do all those things well.

We know that small adjustments to workplaces can make active travel or exercise before or after work a much more realistic option. What work are the Government doing with employers so that workplaces can become more physical activity-friendly? I have asked a number of questions about the health at work programme, and I was disappointed to learn from a parliamentary question that no records are being kept of the number of businesses that are becoming good health at work employers. That is a key issue, which needs more attention and resource directed towards it.

What work are the Government doing with sport governing bodies to ensure that the great success we have enjoyed at the elite level is matched with the same success at grass-roots level? I, for one, enjoyed taking part earlier this year in the “Back to Netball” programme, and I would like to hear about more projects like that that the Government are encouraging across the country—not only for young people, but for adults.

There is a particular concern and challenge around young people at college or university and the differing costs of accessing physical activity and organised sport in places of higher and tertiary education. In the absence of school sport partnerships and compulsory minimum numbers of hours of physical education in schools, how will the Government ensure that sport and activity are a feature of every school, with quality sports coaching and provision in all schools?

I echo the concerns raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) and the hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes) about female participation in sport and physical activity. We know that there is a gap between the number of men and the number of women who take part, and I would be keen to hear from the Minister what the Government are doing in that area. Finally, what action are the Government taking to promote active travel and create environments where people are more likely to walk or cycle for short journeys?

With the right support and direction from Government, getting Britain moving is a single, simple, positive goal that the whole country can get behind—a goal that has the potential to shift our national culture. The issue is not about finger-wagging or telling people they cannot do something they enjoy; it is about promoting a positive activity that people can feel good about and an affordable route to good health and well-being for the whole population. It is the most cost-effective way of making our public services and our NHS sustainable now and in the future.