Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the effect of sugar on health in England; and what steps they
will take to reduce its consumption.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con)
My Lords, consuming too much sugar can lead to weight gain, which
in turn increases the risk of serious diseases such as cancer,
heart disease, type 2 diabetes and Covid-19. It also increases
the risk of tooth decay. Through the healthy weight strategy, we
are delivering a sugar reduction and reformulation programme,
including the soft drinks industry levy, and legislating to
restrict the promotion and advertising of products high in fat,
salt, and sugar.
(Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his reply. He would
agree that we need a suite of different approaches—
Noble Lords
Oh!
(Lab)
—to try to make some headway. One of the great successes has been
the sugar tax, yet the Government, for reasons which he
previously explained, have decided not to extend it over a wider
front because of unforeseen contingencies which created problems.
Would he examine the prospect of taxing those unforeseen
consequences so that the major driver for changing
behaviour—pricing—will start to deliver the real results for
us?
(Con)
I thank the noble Lord for what I am sure was his unintended pun.
I will try not to sugar-coat my response too much. We will see
who can descend to the worst pun by the end.
We take seriously the issue of unintended consequences. As the
noble Lord has rightly said, there has been evidence of people
deciding to go to a different brand. In the case of Irn-Bru, it
introduced a newer version, which I think it called “Irn-Bru
1901”, which has in fact a higher sugar content. We are very
aware of that, which is why all the measures that we take must be
evidence based.
(CB)
My Lords, in the National Food Strategy, which the Government are
due to respond to soon, the suggestion is made that we introduce
a £3 per kilogram tax on sugar, which would be on all processed
food, food used in restaurants and food used in catering. It
would, in effect, extend the current soft drinks levy which, as
the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, said, has been very successful. It
is very straightforward. What is the Government’s response?
(Con)
We are looking at a number of different measures in terms of what
works and what does not work, and we are very clear that it must
be based on evidence. The Government keep all taxes under regular
review, and decisions about the future development of taxes are
made by the Chancellor, in line with the Government’s tax
policy-making framework.
(Con)
My Lords, overconsumption of sugar causes both dental decay and
obesity, but it is dental disease which, unfortunately, is in
many cases largely irreversible. Does the Minister agree that
action to tackle diet-related disease such as tooth decay must be
formally recognised as an integral part of ongoing work to
confront obesity?
(Con)
I agree with my noble friend: it is really important that we
review all the evidence and the different programmes. As she
rightly said, the fact is that a number of hospital admissions of
young children are quite often because those children have tooth
decay that requires serious intervention. We are making sure that
we look at all the different measures—what has worked and what
has not worked—to put these into an evidence-led approach.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister said he was looking at all the evidence.
In doing that, I wonder whether he is looking at what happens,
for example, in Amsterdam, where there is a very enlightened
policy of education—going into schools and dealing with mums
before they have even given birth—in order that there is a better
understanding of this. Surely we must have as wide a spread and
approach as that, and not just deal with taxes, which are
important.
(Con)
The noble Lord makes a really important point: it cannot just be
about fiscal policy; it has to be across a whole range of
different areas, including education and prevention. Indeed, one
of the things that the NHS is looking at for the future is making
sure that we focus more on prevention rather than cure—not to put
cure aside; clearly, we have to deal with people who are ill. At
the request of the Government, the Scientific Advisory Committee
on Nutrition has undertaken an extensive evaluation of the
evidence, looking at all the measures that we could possibly take
to reduce sugar consumption.
(Con)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, raises an important issue.
Obesity is now a major UK health problem, and excess sugar
consumption is a major cause, with significant sugar content in
too much of our food. I confess to being somewhat of a sugar
addict myself—corrected by my wife, but I still love chocolates
and three spoonfuls of sugar in my coffee.
Noble Lords
Oh!
(Con)
The solution here is surely to bring in sugar substitutes.
(Con)
I am not sure that I heard the last word. Was it substitutes?
Noble Lords
Yes.
(Con)
One of the issues that we need to be aware of as we look at how
to tackle sugar levels is that, although we have seen a reduction
in sugar in drinks and in many food products over the years, a
concern that is often raised is whether the sweeteners have
unintended consequences that also cause health issues. We have to
consider all the evidence when we look at the measures that we
introduce.
(CB)
My Lords, can the Minister comment on the proposed relationship
between high-carbohydrate consumption—which is what sugar is—and
deprivation?
(Con)
I always turn to the noble Lord for his experience and advice. It
is well known that diabetics, for example, do not look at their
sugar content but at their intake of carbohydrates when looking
at their diet. I say this as someone whose family has both type 1
and type 2 diabetics, so I understand this issue. I would welcome
more information from the noble Lord.
(Lab)
My Lords, since its introduction in 2018, the sugar tax on soft
drinks has successfully reduced sugar intake and raised more than
£880 million, which the Government had promised to spend on
tackling childhood obesity. However, it is no longer directly
linked to any specific programmes, nor to departmental spending.
Can the Minister explain this turnaround to your Lordships’
House, and what assessment has been made of the effect on public
confidence that similar taxes will be dedicated to expenditure on
improving people’s health?
(Con)
I thank the noble Baroness for raising the success so far of the
programme in reducing sugar in drinks. Between 2015 and 2019, we
saw a 44% reduction in sales-weighted average total sugar in
retailer and manufacturer-branded drinks subject to the soft
drinks industry levy. The money raised through the soft drinks
industry levy was not linked to any specific programmes or
departmental spending. As the noble Baroness will be aware,
departmental spend is allocated through spending reviews by the
Treasury, and there is quite often some scepticism over
hypothec—sorry, probably too much sugar, or not enough sugar—or
hypothecated taxes, but we are committed to tackling childhood
obesity through a number of different programmes.
(Con)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the problem is not just
sugar but the fact that people are putting too many calories of
all sorts in their mouth? The real answer to the obesity epidemic
and the Covid problem is to reduce the total number of calories
going into the mouth. If your waist measurement is more than half
your height, you are eating too much of the gross national
product.
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for that catchy slogan; I wonder whether
we could use it in some of our campaigns. As he rightly says, it
is not just sugar. There are concerns about ultra-processed
foods, for example, but also the size of portions. Many noble
Lords will be aware that, for some simple products, the portion
sizes have increased over the years, and if you want to get a
small portion you have to either buy something and share it with
someone or throw away half of it. We are looking at all these
measures to make sure that our diets are healthier, that we have
the right balance with smaller portions and that people are doing
exercise. It is one thing is to consume those calories but
another to burn them off.
(GP)
My Lords, the Government buy 5% of the calories eaten every day;
that is a figure from Henry Dimbleby. Does the Minister agree
that the Government must do a lot more in a co-ordinated way to
use government procurement in schools, hospitals, prisons and
other institutions to ensure that the food available to people
has far less sugar in it and, ideally, includes fresh fruit and
vegetables rather than ultra-processed food?
(Con)
I thank the noble Baroness for her recommendations for the sort
of healthy diet we should have. She is absolutely right that,
when government expects people to reduce their consumption of
unhealthy food, it should set the way and lead by example. We are
therefore looking at how we change diets in schools and across
the public sector.
