45 Accepted

The benefits of sport and physical activity—improved health, stronger communities, reduced inequalities, and enhanced educational...

Conclusion
The benefits of sport and physical activity—improved health, stronger communities, reduced inequalities, and enhanced educational and economic outcomes—span multiple departments, yet responsibility for delivering them remains disconnected. Without a unifying national framework to align funding, planning, education, health policy and community provision, these gains will continue to be fragmented and under‑ realised. The question is no longer whether the Government recognises 58 the benefits of school and community sport in principle, but whether it is willing to act on them with the urgency and ambition the evidence demands. (Conclusion, Paragraph 146)
Government Response Summary
The government is developing a National Plan for Physical Activity, which aims to provide a unifying cross-government framework to tackle inactivity, demonstrating departmental steps and setting consistent targets to reduce fragmentation.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
The Government is currently working on a National Plan for Physical Activity, a commitment in the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan: Fit for the Future. The intention for the plan is to outline the Government’s shift to a place-based approach to tackling inactivity, which focuses on local delivery and investment. It will demonstrate what steps Government departments and public bodies, including DCMS, DHSC, DfE, Department for Transport and Sport England, are taking to increase physical activity and tackle inactivity through a place based approach. This approach will encourage cross-programme and cross-system collaboration, involving stakeholders from the sport, leisure, health and civil society sectors, working directly with communities to invest locally and target groups that need the most support. The plan will set out a consistent target to annually reduce inactivity rates through a place based approach.
Addressee Bodies
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Timeline
Recommendation age 0.3 yrs
Report published 20 Apr 2026