Participation in sport and physical activity has declined by two thirds

Participation in sport and physical activity has declined by two thirds at a potential cost to the economy of £50billion, MPs were told on Tuesday.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee met to hear evidence from academics about the effects of Covid-19 on grassroots sport.

They were told that the proportion of adults in England engaged in 150 minutes of physical activity each week has fallen from 63 per cent before the Covid-19 pandemic to just 24 per cent now – a drop of nine million adults.

Members of Parliament learned on Tuesday that adults engaging in 150 minutes of activity each week dropped from 63 per cent to 24 per cent since the outbreak of Covid-19 in March

Dr Larissa Davies, reader in sport management at Sheffield Hallam University, said: ‘At the start of the pandemic we were seeing record levels of participation in England – 63 per cent of the population.

‘But recent figures have indicated that adults reaching the recommended guidelines of 150 minutes have gone down to 24 per cent of the population.

‘We would hope there would be a bounce effect when opportunities to participate open up again, but whether they will recover to the levels we saw prior to the pandemic, we just don’t know.

Dr Larissa Davies says the longer the pandemic goes on, the harder it will be to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity and the drop off could cost the economy as much as £50billion

‘It is likely that as people change their behaviour, the longer that goes on, the more difficult it is to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity.

‘There is a huge knock-on effect in terms of economic impact and health impact. There is a huge economic cost to declining levels of participation.

‘Logic says if you have less people participating and volunteering, there would be less value created to society.’