Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase physical activity in the population.

The Government and National Health Service recognise that reducing physical inactivity in people of all ages is important in helping people live longer, healthier lives. Building movement back into people’s everyday lives is a key part of the Health Mission and requires action across the Government and the NHS, to deliver the shift from treatment to prevention.

The Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport currently provide funding to schools and the school games network to support children to have fun and move more through Physical Education classes, sport, play, and other forms of physical activity. Building healthy habits early on, in and out of school, is essential to helping children thrive, develop, and stay fit and healthy.

The Department of Health and Social Care is also working with the Department for Transport to promote active travel and embed health, and inequality impacts, into transport policies and programmes.

The NHS Better Health Campaign promotes ways for people of all ages to move more, and signposts to digital support like the NHS Couch to 5k and the NHS Active 10 walking app, providing free and accessible ways of building movement into everyday life.