Most children in Scotland are failing to do enough daily exercise to help them ward off weight problems.
Only one in ten children aged ten and 11 does the recommended one hour of physical activity every day, according to a new report.
The figures, in a report compiled for the Scottish government, revealed that boys do considerably more exercise than girls — 78 minutes per day compared with 68 minutes — and are also less inactive at other times.
Boys are inactive for 7.4 hours per day while girls are sedentary for 7.6 hours, although both boys and girls are more active at weekends.
There were also some encouraging figures in the report. The researchers found that 60 per cent of children were doing enough exercise every week if their daily were averaged out, and found no significant differences between children from deprived and from affluent backgrounds.
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Analysis of the figures from 2015 revealed that 28 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women in Scotland aged 18-64 were overweight or obese. Women were shown to be especially prone to obesity if they were poorer.
Jason Gill, professor of cardiometabolic health at the University of Glasgow, said: “We know that girls do less as they get older but this shows they are doing less at the ages of ten and 11 too. So perhaps getting girls to do more physical activity is one of the challenges ahead.”
Opposition politicians urged ministers to do more to encourage physical activity among children. Iain Gray, a Labour MSP, described the report as worrying and added: “SNP ministers have repeatedly failed to deal with this crisis, with the SNP government failing to provide outdoor sports facilities to schools.”
Alex Cole-Hamilton, a Liberal Democrat MSP, said: “Healthy lifestyle choices start in childhood. These new statistics confirm the need for children to be spending less time vegetating and more time exercising outside, despite the ropey Scottish weather.
“Unless we take action now our NHS faces an obesity time bomb that will only increase pressure on services.”
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Miles Briggs, health spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “We already have severe problems with obesity north of the border, and all the health complications that brings. If the Scottish government doesn’t take strong action to address this, thousands of Scots will suffer the implications further down the line.”
Aileen Campbell, Scotland’s public health minister, said the government was “working to create a culture where children are as active as possible”.
“The proportion of schools offering two hours or periods of PE per week has increased from less than 10 per cent in 2004-5 to 98 per cent in 2016, thanks to an £11.6 million investment,” she said. “We have also invested £50 million in the active schools programme, along with a significant investment in new facilities.
“We want to go further, to encourage more teenage girls to be active. We are continuing to invest in the Sport Scotland active girls programme, specifically working with teenage girls.”