3 in 4 kids don’t exercise enough
Poll shock amid £300m sport cut
ONLY 20% of girls and 23% of boys do the daily hour of exercise recommended in UK guidelines.
The findings in the NHS Health Survey for England come as the Tories slash more than £300 million promised from the sugar tax to fund a schools sports project.
Shadow Sports Minister Rosena Allin-Khan said: “The Government have cut school sports budgets before. They have also downgraded the importance of school sport by abolishing the requirement that children do at least two hours a week.
“Just one in four boys and one in five girls meet the recommended levels of an hour a day. This is dangerously low and has to change.”
The guidelines apply to five to 18-year-olds and in 2017 the Government pledged £415million from the levy on fizzy drinks makers for the Healthy Pupils Capital Programme. But the amount it will get has been reduced to £100million with the rest easing other shortfalls in school coffers. James Allen of the Sport and Recreation Alliance said: “There is a mismatch between talking a good game about how important physical activity is yet what actually happens is a significant cut in funding.”
A Government spokeswoman said in addition to the £100million scheme, it aimed to “tackle the problem outside school gates” and plough up to £26million into breakfast clubs.