The evidence and messages in the report of the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges align with the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ (CMOs) guidelines for physical activity and Public Health England’s physical activity framework ‘Everybody Active Every Day’ both of which highlight the key role of health professionals in promoting physical activity.

The Government is committed to raising awareness of the UK CMOs guidelines and the benefits of physical activity amongst the public and health professionals. The CMO recently launched a new infographic specifically designed to help health professionals to discuss the benefits of physical activity with their patients. The Government also has in place a range of other programmes to support doctors in the promotion of physical activity. These include e-learning modules on physical activity and health, undergraduate training resources for medical, nursing and allied health professionals and Public Health England’s Clinical Champions Programme. Physical activity is also embedded in NHS’s risk reduction services such as NHS Health Checks and the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.

I would be very happy to meet them.

Physical inactivity costs the UK some £8 billion. I had an excellent meeting with the Secretary of State’s predecessor before he decided to leave the job. May representatives

from Leeds Beckett University, which does wonderful work in this area, and I have a meeting with the Secretary of State to discuss this?

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 Department works closely with other Government departments to achieve a joined-up approach to improving the public’s health, including with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the development and implementation of their Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation.

There are a number of excellent initiatives to encourage teenage girls to get active such as Sport England's This Girl Can campaign, a nationwide campaign to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability. It is already changing behaviours with 49% of women aged 14 to 40 who have seen the campaign reporting they had taken action as a result.

Sport England has also invested over £2million in Bury for a pilot called ‘I Will if You Will’. The programme, on which they worked closely with the local council, combined marketing techniques with sports sessions and exercise classes designed to overcome the hurdles that stop women taking part. Us Girls, funded by Sport England, also exists to increase and sustain young women's participation in sport and physical activity in some of the nation’s most disadvantaged communities.

Girls Active, funded by Sport England, in partnership with This Girl Can and Women in Sport is a scheme to encourage teenage girls to take part in PE and sport and the School Games offer children of all abilities the chance to take part in competitive sport. In 2014/15, 177,630 children took part at level 3 of the School Games (the county festivals) and 51% of these participants were girls.

In December, DCMS published 'Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation', a new cross-departmental strategy for sport and physical activity. The strategy sets out government's vision for a successful and active sporting nation and emphasises the importance of helping people in under-represented groups, including women and girls, to get active.

There are no plans to introduce a scheme of this nature.

Those wishing to engage a coach to work with children or vulnerable groups may request the coach provide a criminal record check. A self-employed coach can apply for an enhanced DBS check through an agency, who will process the application and confirm that the activity is eligible to request the check. Alternatively, any individual can apply directly for a criminal conviction certificate which is available from Disclosure Scotland which contains details of unspent convictions and cautions.

Where parents do not want to engage a coach without the reassurance of a DBS check, they are free to limit their selection process to people who can show them a DBS certificate. Ultimately, it is for parents to decide who is a suitable person to coach their child and to take account of the information which is available to them.

Government recognises the importance of cross-government cooperation in considering policies which impact on the provision, access and promotion of outside spaces. There is not one single government department, which that leads on the promotion of healthier lifestyles through non-competitive outdoor recreation activities. Instead, Government departments jointly recognise the value of outdoor recreation to health, environment and education. Outdoor recreation is referenced in the Government’s new sport and physical activity strategy, which was published on 17th December 2015. Government will submit a formal annual report to Parliament, which sets out progress in implementing this strategy later this year. Individual government department’s involvement in outdoor activities is outlined below:

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The importance of outdoor recreation is reflected in our new sport and physical activity strategy, published in December 2015. Sport England is currently working with the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) on the ‘Getting Active Outdoors’ insight report - the largest ever of its kind - to get the nation active - particularly children, pensioners and women. In the meantime, Sport England is investing over £68 million in outdoor recreation sports, including £3 million invested in the Britain on Foot campaign, to get more people hillwalking, trail running and mountaineering.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs holds policy responsibility for the legal and land-use aspects of access to the countryside (in forests, protected landscapes, on public rights of way, commons, town and village greens, open access spaces and on waterways).

The Department of Health

The Department of Health acknowledges the health benefits of being in a natural environment are significant and that it is important that children have opportunities to play in clean, secure outdoor environments. The department recognises the importance of outdoor activities and they have included an indicator on use of green space for exercise and health purposes in the Public Health Outcomes Framework. The health promotes outdoor physical activity through a variety of channels, which includes: Change4Life Sports Clubs - a programme providing indoor and outdoor non-competitive physical activity to the least active children; the 10 Minute Shake Up campaign - Change4Life teamed up with Disney to inspire children to get active with over the summers of 2014 and 2015; providing funding of over 1million to Play England for a three year project ‘Street Play’ to promote outdoor play activities; and National Institute of Care and Excellence (NICE) guidance to promoting outdoor physical activity.

The Department for Education

The Department for Education are is determined that all children lead healthy active lives. Physical Education is compulsory at all four key stages in the national curriculum for maintained schools. The programmes of study at key stages 2, 3 and 4 sets out the expectation that pupils should take part in outdoor adventurous activities. At key stage 4 these activities should take place in a range of environments and present intellectual and physical challenges. Independent research on the primary PE and sport premium demonstrates that some schools are using their funding to provide enhanced opportunities for their pupils in this area – including rock-climbing, surfing and sailing. The Department does not specifically promote non-competitive outdoor activities as teachers have the freedom to organise and deliver the curriculum to ensure it is challenging and effectively meets programme of study.

The Department for Communities and Local Government

The Department for Communities and Local Government role in outdoor recreation is community focussed. It recognises that Parks, sports grounds and other green spaces, which are shared by lots of people, holds great benefits to the health and wellbeing of local communities. We want local communities to be empowered to play a significant role in maintaining and protecting green spaces of most importance to them. The Department owns the Green Flag Award scheme, a recognised accreditation setting the national standard for parks and green spaces across the UK, which is currently run under licence by Keep Britain Tidy. The scheme awards well-managed green spaces run by the local authority and has a separate category for community managed green spaces. The Department is currently running a Pocket Parks programme to establish up to 100 pocket parks – small areas of inviting public space where people can enjoy relief from city streets. It is expected that an announcement of the successful projects will be made in February. Through the Community Right to Bid, communities are listing the parks and green spaces that are important to them. Hundreds have been listed including allotments and playing fields.

The tax exemption associated with the Cycle to Work scheme is for the loan or hire by an employer to an employee of a cycle or cyclist’s safety equipment. It was established to promote healthier journeys to work and to reduce environmental pollution. This and all other tax exemptions are kept under review.

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.