Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to work with the Department of Health on its upcoming childhood obesity strategy to encourage school-based activities to promote physical activity among young people.
Answered on
29 June 2016
We are working closely with colleagues both at the Department of Health and across Whitehall on the Childhood Obesity Strategy. Tackling obesity, particularly in children, is one of our major priorities. The Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the late summer, will consider all the factors that contribute to a child becoming overweight and obese, and set out our plans to tackle this major challenge.
The Obesity Strategy will complement our existing measures to promote school-based physical activity for pupils. PE remains a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the national curriculum, and the national curriculum sets out the expectation that pupils should be physically active for sustained periods of time. In addition, we have ring-fenced over £450 million to improve PE and sport in primary schools (2013/14 - 2015/16), and committed to doubling the primary PE and sport premium to £320 million a year from September 2017 using revenue from the soft drinks industry levy.