We are clear that everyone, regardless of their age, background or level of ability, should feel able to engage in sport and physical activity.

The most recent Active Lives survey shows that 62.6% of the adult population of England) are active and hitting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines for daily activity. That’s an increase of 498,000 people (0.8%) compared to the previous 12 month period.

However, there are some inequalities which remain with lower levels of participation among certain groups, including women, some black and minority ethnic groups and those from a lower socio-economic background.

By 2021 Sport England will have invested around 25% of its income since 2017 (approximately £120m) specifically in programmes dedicated to tackling inactivity. This includes various targeted programmes, including the Tackling Inactivity and Economic Disadvantage Fund, and campaigns such as This Girl Can which has been developed to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability.

The Government’s Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action published on 18 August 2016 sets out the actions we are taking to support children and young people to meet the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officer’s daily recommended levels of at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. A copy of the plan is attached. This includes doubling the Primary PE and Sport Premium from September 2017, a new interactive online tool to help schools identify gaps in existing provision and recommend ways of increasing opportunities for children to be active, and access to high quality sports and physical activity programmes for all primary schools in England. This year we are investing another £1 million in the Change4Life Sports Clubs programme which targets the less active children.

In addition, we will develop a new, voluntary healthy rating scheme available to all primary schools. It will recognise and encourage schools’ contribution to preventing obesity by helping children to eat better and move more.

We will also be providing more guidance for schools about how they can work with the school nurses, health centres, healthy weight teams in local authorities and other resources, to help children develop a healthier lifestyle.

Government is determined to tackle physical inactivity. Around one in two women and a third of men in England may be damaging their health through a lack of physical activity. Ministers across government continue to work together to identify opportunities to get people active in a range of ways including active travel, health initiatives, planning and sport.

In December 2015 Government published ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ - the first comprehensive government strategy for sport for 13 years – it sets out a new vision for a successful and active sporting nation. It has a strong focus on reaching inactive people and helping them to get moving in ways that suit them.

Sport England's new strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’, published on 19 May, states that tackling inactivity is a major priority for the organisation, it is tripling its current investment to over £250 million over 4 years, making it the largest single national investor in tackling inactivity.

Government is determined to tackle physical inactivity. Around one in two women and a third of men in England may be damaging their health through a lack of physical activity. Ministers across government continue to work together to identify opportunities to get people active in a range of ways including active travel, health initiatives, planning and sport.

In December 2015 Government published ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ - the first comprehensive government strategy for sport for 13 years – it sets out a new vision for a successful and active sporting nation. It has a strong focus on reaching inactive people and helping them to get moving in ways that suit them.

Sport England's new strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’, published on 19 May, states that tackling inactivity is a major priority for the organisation, it is tripling its current investment to over £250 million over 4 years, making it the largest single national investor in tackling inactivity.

Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the summer, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese including inactivity.

The Government welcomes ukactive’s report. It makes an important contribution to the debate on physical activity and builds on the framework for action set out by Public Health England last year in “Everybody Active Every Day”.

The Government recognises the health, economic and social benefits to individuals, communities and the nation of increasing physical activity levels. Since 2011, the Government has invested over £450 million in the PE and Sport Primary Premium in order to improve PE and sport. A further £46.5 million has been invested in School Games in order to provide all children, regardless of their ability, with a chance to participate in competitive sport. In addition £13 million has been invested in Change4life sports clubs which targets the least active children and helps them get more active.

We are also committed to raising awareness among the public and health professionals of the benefits of physical activity. We have worked with experts to translate the Chief Medical Officers’ (CMOs) guidelines on physical activity into easy messages in the form of an infographic which health professionals can now use with their patients when they discuss physical activity. The UK’s CMOs have now asked the experts to carry out a similar piece of work on physical activity for children and young people. In addition, Public Health England’s Change4Life campaign continues to support families to make healthy choices, including being active.

Further action to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour will be taken via the Government’s new strategy for sport to be published shortly.

The usual practice of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and of the Medical Research Council (MRC) is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available.

Public funders including the NIHR, the MRC, other Research Councils and Innovate UK fund a wide range of research relating to monitoring of physical activity/inactivity and the development and evaluation of interventions to support and encourage healthy behaviours including physical activity.

For example, the NIHR has recently funded a £0.8 million trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Football Fans in Training (FFIT) - a group-based, weight management and healthy living programme delivered by community coaches. The report of the study has been published in the NIHR Journals Library and is attached.

Tackling obesity, particularly in children, is one of the government’s priorities. We will put forward our plans for action in this area as part of the childhood obesity strategy. We recognise that schools can help to address the problem of childhood obesity, through focusing on improving physical education (PE) for all children and teaching about food, nutrition and healthy eating.

Since 2013, the government has provided over £300 million of ring-fenced funding to head teachers to improve PE and sport. We are investing a further £150 million this academic year for schools to improve the quality of PE and sport they offer. More than eight in ten schools have seen an increase in pupil engagement with PE during school time and in the number of children doing sports after school.

PE is a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the national curriculum. The PE programme of study aims to ensure that all pupils are physically active for sustained periods of time and lead healthy, active lives. The national curriculum also sets the expectation that children will be taught about healthy eating and what constitutes a balanced diet.

The government-funded Change4Life programme aims to inspire everyone to eat well, take more exercise and live longer. There are a number of campaigns which promote healthy eating and sports such as the 10 Minute Shake Up summer campaign and Change4Life sports clubs. These are extracurricular sports clubs in schools which are designed to increase physical activity levels in the least active children.

Through our £1 billion youth and community sport strategy we are developing innovative solutions to engage girls and young women in sport and develop a sporting habit for life. For example, we have invested over £2 million in Bury for an initiative called ‘I Will if You Will’ which is about listening and giving women what they want. This programme has now been extended.

The 'This Girl Can' campaign has received an incredibly positive response, and has received close to 5 million views on youtube. We are encouraging NGBs, sports bodies, schools and community groups to register on the website (www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/register) and use the supporting materials provided to help with their own outreach to engage more women in sport and exercise.

The Department for Education is seeing encouraging signs of progress on tackling obesity, with rates in children falling to 14% in 2012, the lowest level of child obesity since 1998. The Government is taking forward a range of activities to continue this trend.

As part of the new national curriculum, which comes into force from September 2014, the programmes of study for both physical education and science include content on the importance of a healthy lifestyle. All pupils aged between 5 and 14 will learn about cooking and nutrition, which will be compulsory at key stage 3 for the first time. Children will learn the importance of eating good, tasty, nutritious food at school and beyond through the School Food Plan.

The Government is determined to embed an enjoyment of sport and physical activity from an early age, so that children understand the importance of keeping fit and develop a lifetime habit of healthy activity. Through the primary PE and sport premium we are providing over £450m of ringfenced funding across academic years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16. This goes directly to primary schools, to be spent on the improvement of PE and sport to ensure that all pupils develop a healthy lifestyle.

The Department of Health is providing Change4Life Sports Clubs in 10,000 primary and secondary schools, which encourage children to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Schools are using their primary PE and sport premium to supplement the Change4Life programme and so far more than 225,000 pupils have benefited from that programme.