• 30% of children do less than 30 minutes daily exercise
• Olympian says PE should have higher status in schools

Britain has 7,000 fewer PE teachers than when London hosted the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, MPs have been told, while 30% of children are now doing less than 30 minutes of any physical activity, including walking, a day.

The shocking figures were spelt out in the first session of the digital culture, media and sport committee’s ongoing inquiry into the challenges provision of sport for children and young people – and what can be done to arrest the decline in activity levels.