Health and Social Care Committee Inquiry on Healthy Ageing

In 2025, the Health and Social Care Committee undertook an inquiry into the role of physical activity in improving the health and wellbeing of our older population.

Progress on improving healthy life expectancy in England has stalled and people are spending longer living with ill health in their older years. Physical activity can help prevent ill health, but activity levels in England are decreasing and are lowest among older people. A small increase in activity by an older person can be substantially beneficial in improving health and reducing or delaying the development of multiple long-term health conditions.

The inquiry looked at the ways that physical activity can prevent and reduce ill health, and explored how increasing physical activity levels could have an impact on reducing the gap in healthy life expectancy between older people in the most and least deprived regions.