The Government welcomes the report from UK Active and will consider its findings carefully. The Minister for Sport has announced a new strategy on Sport which will be developed over the coming months. As part of this, we will be working closely with both the Minister for Sport and the Minister for Children and Families to identify what other action is necessary to encourage children and young people to be more physically active.

The Department awarded a grant of £400,147 to the Health, Exercise and Nutrition for the Really Young programme.

The activities will take place in 32 children’s centres in the following four regions: Yorkshire and Humber; East of England; West Midlands; and South West.

The Department has not commissioned an assessment on the effect of air pollution on levels of physical activity of people in the United Kingdom.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published web-based information on how to use the Daily Air Quality Index. This includes health advice for members of the public—in particular those with conditions that may make them sensitive to the effects of air pollutants—to reduce levels of exercise outdoors during periods of elevated air pollution.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a range of guidance on pain and pain management. This guidance represents evidence-based best practice and provides a clear description of what high-quality health and social care services look like, so that organisations can improve quality and achieve excellence.

The Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Guideline CG79, published by NICE in 2009, states people with rheumatoid arthritis should have access to specialist physiotherapy, with periodic review, to:

improve general fitness and encourage regular exercise; and

learn exercises for joint flexibility, muscle strength and managing other functional impairments.

NICE has also published Clinical Guidance on Low Back Pain, CG88. The guidance includes a recommendation to ‘advise people with low back pain that staying physically active is likely to be beneficial’ and highlights as a key priority for implementation a recommendation to clinicians to consider offering a structured exercise programme tailored to the individual.

The Department expects clinical commissioning groups to take into account any relevant NICE guidance as they design services to meet the needs of patients.

While there is an indicator in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) on physical activity levels, there are no indicators in the PHOF specifically on physical activity levels among people with back pain, osteoarthritis and other painful musculoskeletal conditions.

The Department will not add new indicators to the PHOF until 2016 to provide local authorities with stability in prioritising and commissioning public health interventions. The current PHOF will be reviewed in late 2015.