Fitness Of Children

EDM number 988 in 2009-10, proposed by Bob Russell on 02/03/2010.
Categorised under the topics of Health education and preventive medicine and Schools.

That this House welcomes a study by the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex which showed that children who are driven to school have the lowest levels of physical fitness, being less fit than walkers, cyclists and children who took the bus; notes in particular that in the age group 10 to 16 years, research showed that boys who walked to school were 20 per cent. more likely to be fit compared with those using motorised transport and that for girls the figure was 30 per cent.; further notes that boys who cycled to school were found to be 30 per cent. fitter, while female cyclists were seven times more likely to reach the minimum fitness standard than girls who were driven to school; congratulates Dr Gavin Sandercock and Christine Voss for the research involving 6,000 pupils in the East of England; and calls on the Government to encourage schools to promote cycling and walking as a means of raising fitness levels amongst pupils, with particular emphasis on providing safe cycling routes.

This motion has been signed by a total of 33 MPs.