Why was the survey carried out?
Sport England has as an objective agreed with Government to increase participation in sport by an average of 1% a year over the next three years to 2008. The Framework for Sport in England has identified a longer-term target to continue this growth to at least 2020 to establish England as the most active nation in the world. Having the reliable facts and figures available to us on how many people participate in sport and how this varies from place to place and between different groups in the population is essential if we are to establish whether these ambitious targets are being achieved and where we need to focus our efforts.


What is the definition of sport in the Active People Survey?
Sport England has adopted the wide definition of sport used by the Council of Europe: "Sport means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels". This inclusive definition is reflected in the structure and content of the questionnaire which includes specific questions on recreational walking and cycling in addition to questions on "other types of sport and recreational physical activity... whether for competition, training or receiving tuition, socially, casually or for health and fitness".


What age groups does the Active People Survey include?
The Active People Survey is a survey of the English population aged 16 years and over. It does not have an upper age limit. To have included young people aged less than 16 years in the survey would have raised a number of methodological and logistical issues and increased the costs substantially. The DCMS "Taking Part Survey" includes a sample of 3,000 young people for which interviewing started in January 2006.


What questionnaire was used in the Active People Survey?
The Active People Survey will be carried out using a specially developed questionnaire that meets the objectives of measuring and tracking changes for the key indicators required for the CPA and a wider set of indicators that are a priority within the Framework for Sport in England, Regional Plans, Whole Sport Plans and within Sport England's "Delivery Plan". The survey will not be using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ – Long Version) as this was established through an extensive pilot in Sport England's Yorkshire Region to be not ideally suited for this purpose.

In designing the questionnaire every effort has been made to retain time series data provided by The Health Survey for England and the General Household Survey and to incorporate those elements of the IPAQ survey that are suitable. In addition, the questionnaire has been designed to included core questions that are replicated in the Taking Part Survey: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, which commenced in July 2005.

Further information about the Active People Survey questions is provided in a briefing note click here


What value does the Active People Survey provide to local authorities?
Local authorities have a critical role to play in promoting sporting opportunities in their communities in a "single system for sport" that sees them working in partnership with the County Sport Partnerships and playing a critical role in Community Sport Networks. If sport is to feature as a priority within the local authority agenda it must feature within the Comprehensive Performance Assessment as part of a wider "Culture Block". The Active People Survey will provide the robust and reliable measurement required for establishing baselines indicators within the CPA.

The key indicators proposed for inclusion in the CPA and delivered by the Active People Survey are:

• The percentage of adults participating in at least 30 minutes moderate intensity sport and active recreation (including recreational walking) on 3 or more days a week.
• The percentage of the population volunteering in sport and active recreation for at least one hour a week

How can I access the Active People Survey results?
Headline results from the survey are on the Sport England website, in the form of 'factsheets'. These provide key headline data for each region, nationally, and on a sport-by-sport basis.

Full results of the survey are available via a sophisticated online reporting and analysis tool called 'Active People Diagnostic'.  Active People Diagnostic is a unique resource which enables users to view pre-defined results, and also to interactively build thier own analysis.

Active People Diagnostic is a password-protected site with access for registered users only. To register for access to Active People Diagnostic, please log onto the site http://www.webreport.se/apd/login.aspx and fill in a quick and simple registration form (by clicking on ‘register for access to the site’). You will automatically be sent a password (via email) to access the site.


What is the difference between the Active People Survey and the "Taking Part" Survey?
Taking Part Survey: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport is a survey commissioned by the Department of Culture Media and Sport and jointly sponsored with Sport England, Arts Council England, English Heritage and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. "Taking Part" is being carried out by BMRB. The survey started in July 2005 and will interview respondents "continuously" over a three-year period to July 2008.

Although both the Taking Part Survey and Active People Survey will have a set of core questions that are identical there are a number of significant differences that justify having two separate surveys being carried out in parallel:

• The Taking Part Survey is being carried out through household face-to-face interviews while the Active People Survey is being carried out over the telephone.
• The Taking Part Survey is a "culture wide survey" including questions on sport and active recreation, the arts, use of museums libraries and galleries and gambling whilst the Active People Survey is focused on sport and active recreation.
• The Taking Part Survey has a smaller sample size (27,000) than the Active People Survey (350,000) but because it is a household interview survey includes more questions the social context and benefits of participation and the motivations and barriers to participation.
• The Taking Part Survey will be continuous over a three-year period (2005-2008). The Active People Survey was carried out in 2005/6 and will then become a continuous annual survey, starting in October 2007.
• The Active People Survey with its much larger sample size will be able to report reliable statistics down to local authority level to measure change on key indicators in the order of 3 to 4% over three years (hence its potential use in the CPA). The Taking Part Survey will be able to present reliable statistics at a national and regional level to track progress on Public Service Agreement targets.

To find out more about the Taking Part Survey, click here


Does the Active People Survey provide statistics on individual sports?
The Active People Survey will provide by far the largest sample size ever established for a sport and recreation survey. This will allow levels of detailed analysis previously unavailable to us. At a national level it will be possible to provide detailed analysis on who takes part in different sports and to establish positive and negative trends in participation to high levels of precision even for the relatively small participant sports.

However even a sample size of this scale will not be able to provide statistically reliable data on levels of participation for different sports for each local authority.


Is there a Technical Report available?
There is a Technical Report, which outlines the technical and methodological approach to the design and conduct, and subsequent data analysis of the Active People Survey. To download the Technical Report, click here.


Was any expert academic advice sought on the design of the questionnaire and research methodology?
The Active People Survey involved a large investment of public money into measurement. As a consequence it is absolutely vital that the survey meets the highest quality standards in research design and survey methodology. In addition, therefore, to the expertise in market research brought by Ipsos UK, Sport England ensured that it received continued advisory input from a panel of eminent academics with specialist expertise in the areas of physical activity and sport surveys.

The Active People Academic Advisory Group has the following membership:

• Dr Fiona Bull (Chair) - University of Loughborough (expert in physical activity surveys - international co-ordinator on the IPAQ survey)
• Prof Chris Gratton - Sheffield Hallam University (expert on leisure economics/ carried out extensive secondary analysis on the sport questions in the GHS)
• Dr Melvyn Hillsdon - University of Bristol (expert on research into physical activity - co-author of recent systematic review on 'understanding participation' carried out by Sport England)
• Dr Manos Stamatakis - University College London (advisor to the Dept of Health on sport and physical activity component in The Health Survey for England and co-author of report on 2003 survey report)
• Prof Chris Riddoch - University of Bath (extensive research on physical activity and lead author on the Chief Medical Officer Report on physical activity and behaviour change)
• Prof Adrian Bauman - University of New South Wales (expert in physical activity surveys - international co-ordinator on the IPAQ survey)