Exercise

(asked on 27th January 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department last reviewed the effectiveness of public health measures designed to increase the uptake of exercise in adults and children in the UK.


Answered by
 Portrait
Jane Ellison
This question was answered on 2nd February 2015

Promoting and increasing levels of physical activity is a key priority for the Department. This is supported by a well-developed and wide-ranging programme of actions, including:

- The four UK Chief Medical Officers’ recommendations for physical activity published in 2011. These are the first United Kingdom-wide guidelines and are in line with international recommendations. For the first time, the guidelines have included a life course approach and guidelines for sedentary behaviour. I have asked Public Health England to develop a ‘5-a-day’ style message to ensure we improve the effectiveness of these guidelines in public messaging.

- Work with other Government departments to ensure all children and young people have opportunities to be physically active and enjoy sport so, particularly the least active and those not currently engaged with sport. Alongside this the Department is investing almost £222 million in programmes such as the PE and Sport Premium for Primary Schools, School Games, and Change4Life Sports Clubs to ensure all children and young people have opportunities to be physically active We are also funding Play England £1 million over a three year period to promote playing outdoors. The project is currently running a pilot in 10 deprived areas to help school children become more active and also reduce sedentary behaviour in adults.

- Investment of £1.2 million in five English cities to deliver a range of interventions to support residents to build walking into their day- to -day lives. Evidence shows that these programmes have been very successful at encouraging older people to become more active. In addition, the Department works closely with the Ramblers/McMillan Cancer Support to promote the nationwide Walking for Health Programme which has a wide participation by older people.

- Work with a range of organisations in the voluntary and private sector as part of the Department’s Public Health Responsibility Deal, to promote physical activity amongst adults and children.

In February 2014, the Government published “Moving More, Living More” (MMLM), a cross-Government campaign to deliver a physical activity legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As part of this, I chair a Ministerial Sub-Group of the Cabinet Committee for Olympic and Paralympic Legacy. The role of the Sub-Group is to take forward the commitments made in MMLM and ensure that relevant Government departments are making a contribution to the physical activity agenda. The Ministerial Sub-Group is supported by an officials’ group which meets monthly and reports to Ministers on progress.

In October 2014, Public Health England published, “Everybody active, every day” with full ministerial involvement. Building on ‘Moving More, Living More’, this framework aims to increase the levels of physical activity in local communities by identifying key areas where more action is needed. The Department is now working with a range of partners to take forward the recommendations of this report, as part of the MMLM programme of work.

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