The Youth Sports Trust has called on the next Government to urgently prioritise sport and physical activity in schools following major new research which reports “unacceptably” low levels.

Sport England’s annual Active Lives survey was published on Thursday and, while it did show some improvements in children’s activity levels, especially outside of school, the findings underlined trends which UK sports leaders have called “a public health emergency”.

Only two in five children were found to be active for an average of at least 30 minutes of each school day. The research also showed other continued inequalities, with girls and children from less affluent families yet more likely to be inactive. Asian and black children were the most likely to do less than an average of 30 minutes activity a day.

The governing bodies of every major sport have jointly written to the political parties to urge at least an hour of sport and physical activity during every school day.

The Sport England study is the first which judges activity levels according to the chief medical officer’s updated advice that children get at least seven hours of moderate to vigorous activity per week - an average of an hour a day. The guideline previously was an hour each and every day, with only 17.5 per cent of children and young people meeting that target last year.