It is important that all children have the opportunity to engage in physical activity and sport in a way that interests them. We want all primary school children to do at least 30 minutes of the Chief Medical Officers’ recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity at school.

As part of our Childhood Obesity Plan we are promoting a national ambition that every primary school should adopt an active mile initiative, which can be a good way for schools to achieve this aim. We support primary schools to enhance their Physical Education (PE) and sport provision through the PE and sport premium, which we have recently increased to £320 million per year using money from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. This money can be used to improve the PE, sport and extra-curricular activities offered by schools.

Other initiatives to encourage increased physical activity by primary age pupils outside the school day include the department’s Essential Life Skills Fund and Sport England’s Families Fund. Both programmes support children from low income families to access opportunities to develop competence and confidence in their ability to be physically active outside the school day.

The campaign by ITV and INEOS did not require the approval of the Department for Education. It is up to schools to decide what activities to offer to their pupils, and for private companies to decide the contents of the campaigns they run.

The department supports the adoption of programmes that increase physical activity amongst pupils. Regular physical activity has been linked not only to improved physical health but also to improved mental wellbeing and academic attainment. Programmes such as the Daily Mile are simple, inclusive and can successfully engage the least active children in physical activity, helping them to achieve the 60 active minutes each day recommended by the UK chief medical officers.

The UK chief medical officers’ recommend that all children and young people should engage in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day. Schools play an important role in supporting children to achieve the physical activity recommendations. The Childhood Obesity Plan recommended that at least 30 minutes should be delivered in school every day through active break times, physical education (PE), extra-curricular clubs, active lessons, or other sport and physical activity events, with the remaining 30 minutes supported by parents and carers’ outside of school time.

The government does not set a target for how much curriculum time schools must dedicate to PE or specify the sports and activities that must be taught in schools. However, all maintained schools must teach a full programme of study for PE for all their pupils.

The government recognises the value of physical activity for pupils. Schools have the freedom to decide which programmes they wish to adopt to suit their pupils.

Active Movement Limited is a private company and the department has not made any assessment of the programme on exam achievement levels.