The Government has delivered a stinging rebuke to Cosla following suggestions that they will abandon a target set for June this year of two hours' quality physical education per week.

Recent media reports suggest the SNP are on the brink of abandoning this manifesto pledge, but there was a flat denial from a government spokesman yesterday. Reports are "completely unfounded" he said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Cosla responded by accusing the SNP of "castigating us as the bad guys" and denied local government wants to remove the two-hour target.

Well that's good news. Because given Scotland's damning health statistics, scrapping targets for compulsory physical education seems akin to shelving chemotherapy and prescribing an extra 20 cigarettes per day for a lung cancer victim.

According to Glasgow university biostatistics centre, 21% of Scottish adults are clinically obese, and treatment of obesity-related illness cost the NHS in Scotland more than £170m in 2002. They did not have the updated figures yesterday, but few would attempt to argue that the statistics have improved.

More recent figures say one boy in six and one girl in seven is obese. Overweight Scots occupy one NHS bed in 10 and consume 9% of revenue. Women's obesity in Scotland has risen from 8% to 23% in the 22 years from 1980.

In men the figure is 6% to 22%.

Is it a coincidence that this matches the period during which curricular PE and competitive sport have been marginalised?

Scotland's local authorities have failed to live up to what was a manifesto pledge by the Scottish Government and of the previous administration. This was not regarded as a goal, merely a stepping stone for kids who are the most overweight in the developed world after the US.

There is a health time bomb, and it is ticking in a home very close to every one of us. Sport may not be a total cure, but it can prevent an epidemic from spreading. Two hours' PE per week was recommended by a Scottish Executive review in 2004. It's suggested not one local authority has managed to do so in both secondaries and primaries.

A spokesman for the Scottish government said yesterday: "We expect schools to continue to work towards the provision of at least two hours of good-quality PE for each child every week. Reports that we intend to scrap the existing target are completely unfounded. Proposals to remove the two-hour PE and physical activity requirement were made by local authorities. However, we will not agree to this unless we are convinced that there are alternatives which are better at delivering fitter, healthier young people . . . There is no suggestion that there should be less PE and we will soon be announcing a focus on health and wellbeing right across the curriculum."

Cosla's spokesman countered: "This is very disappointing. Batting this back to castigate us as the bad guys is counter-productive and something I thought we had moved on from. No proposal to remove the two-hour PE target has come from local government. Councils fully support young people having quality PE and are committed to it.

"Local and central government's focus must remain on improving outcomes for children, and we are committed to working with Scottish Government to improve the health and wellbeing of all Scotland's children. We also wish to discuss with Scottish Government the role of targets such as this in the developing curriculum."

Sportscotland's interim chairman, Ian Beattie, was unequivocal. He wants daily PE. "We were surprised by reports of Cosla's intentions, because it did not reflect the feedback we'd from government,"

he said last night. "Achieving two hours weekly PE is only a start. We are reliant on local authorities to implement the national strategy. Some are very committed, but there's wide variation, and it's important it reaches the same level across all authorities. It will be part of the legacy of the 2012 Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games to deliver more quality PE."

Coincidentally yesterday, Rita Yuan Gao, the China-born Scottish badminton internationalist, was giving encouragement to members of the Scottish under-15 team for the Bank of Scotland Home Countries Quadrangular tournament at Scotstoun this weekend.

"Our sport is not just important for elite competitors, but also for developing a healthy lifestyle, even if you never take the game to a higher level," says Gao, who has just given up her international career to concentrate on coaching.

"Daily exercise is so important. At school in China, even before I went to the special sports school, we had physical education four or five days a week. Most parents also encourage their children to do after-school activities. For some that may be sport, but also music or dance."

Hopefully we won't have to wait until Scottish culture is thousands of years old before we reach enlightenment.