Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what is their policy to tackle
childhood obesity.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con)
Addressing childhood obesity remains a priority for the
Government and we remain committed to achieving our ambition to
halve childhood obesity by 2030. We are delivering an ambitious
programme of work to create a healthier environment to help
people achieve and maintain a healthy weight. We recognise that
there is more that we need to do, and we will continue to work
with the food industry to make it easier for people to make
healthier choices.
(Lab)
My Lords, first, could the Minister clarify whether the previous
Administration’s policy, either to weaken or to repeal much of
the 2020 obesity strategy, still stands or whether the Government
will do better than that? Secondly, does he agree that health
visitors play an important part in educating and informing
families and parents so that, when children are young, they are
brought up in an environment where they are encouraged to have a
diet that tackles obesity?
(Con)
I agree that health visitors play a vital role. We all know that
a good start to life with healthy eating is a good foundation for
the rest of your life. We also know that a lot of the problems
around adult obesity obviously start in children under the age of
five. I completely agree on continuing to strive to do better in
government. I will answer some more questions on the actions we
are taking, from which the noble Lord will see that we are very
active.
(Con)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that, as 40 million people are
obese in this country, marching inevitably to a premature death
from a variety of very unpleasant diseases, it would be a good
idea to encourage them to have one less meal a day? This might
encourage children to follow suit and put fewer calories into
their mouths, which would help prevent them developing type 2
diabetes before they are 10.
(Con)
My Lords, I agree that we—both as the Government and in
general—need to be clear about what our recommended calorific
intake is each day. Whether you choose to change that by eating
one less meal, or however else you distribute your eating across
the day, it is our role to help educate people on healthy eating.
I agree that it is an issue and a big cost to both the health
service and the economy. Our latest estimates are that it could
cost the economy as much as £58 billion a year, so it is a
critical message to get across.
(LD)
My Lords, would the Minister enlighten us on the position of the
BOGOF—buy one, get one free—deals? Are we going to remove the
disincentive to people buying extra calories in the form of an
extra portion? Or will the Government encourage people not to buy
the first portion?
(Con)
As I think the noble Lord is aware, the position on BOGOF, so to
speak, is that we have delayed those restrictions for a year. We
have taken significant action in this space, most critically in
supermarkets, by moving the promoted items away from tills and
prominent aisle endings to remove this so-called pester power. We
will very much keep this under review; when we see the impact,
particularly of moving those items, we can look again at whether
we will introduce more BOGOF restrictions.
(Non-Afl)
My Lords, the Minister has mentioned that what children eat is
very important, but is the amount of proper and physical exercise
young children get not just as important? Is he concerned, as I
am, that primary schools, more and more, do not have officially
registered physical education teachers, resulting in children
getting very little properly organised exercise? Does he think
that this is important, as far as obesity in children is
concerned?
(Con)
I agree with the noble Baroness, particularly given her previous
position, that sport and physical activity are vital. As I am
sure she is aware, we have a 60-minute target for children and
£320 million of PE funding to back that up—but active lifestyles
and sport are critical to that.
At this moment, as both an Englishman and a Welshman, I take the
opportunity to wish both teams all the best in the World Cup.
(Lab)
My Lords, is it not a factor that exercise, no matter how much
you do, will reduce only 20% of your overweight? Some 80% is from
food and drink. Will the Government spend more time looking at
fat and sugar? Why will they not promote research into
alternatives to sugar, notably stevia? Instead, they leave it to
the private sector and the manufacturers to do the work, and they
are doing no work whatever on it. In those circumstances, will
the Government take action themselves?
(Con)
I agree with the noble Lord that a healthy lifestyle in terms of
exercise gets only you so far and that the amount we eat is
critical to that. We have played a very active role on sugar
reduction—of course, I say this in the context of this being
Sugar Awareness Week. Obviously, the sugary drinks levy has
reduced sugar in soft drinks by 44% by using artificial
sweeteners, so this is something we will look to continue to
research and to add to, if the evidence backs it up.
(Con)
My Lords, I draw attention to my registered relationship with
ukactive. I ask my noble friend whether he would agree that there
is, on this occasion, as the noble Lord, , said once, a
silver bullet: it is called physical activity. This is in line
with the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey. In
supporting physical activity, my experience was that the
Department of Health needed to work with DCMS and the Department
for Education to promote school sport partnerships. In my former
constituency, 51 primary schools benefit from the school sport
partnerships. It is a really important priority that every
youngster, not just those who are really good at sport, gets the
chance for that physical activity.
(Con)
I thank my noble friend and totally agree with him. As we have
all mentioned, physical activities are a key part of a healthy
lifestyle, regarding not just obesity and healthy eating but
mental health. There is a lot of evidence to show that sport and
a healthy lifestyle are good for everyone. We are working with
the DfE and DCMS on this, but I agree that it we will need to
keep it central to our agenda.
(Lab)
I say to the Minister that we do not need to reinvent the wheel.
A perfectly good practical policy was worked out at the end of
the period in government; it
arrived on the desk of , who scrapped it. Why not go
back to that?
(Con)
I am afraid the noble Lord is testing my memory as to what that
was. If he will excuse me, I will find out what it was and write
to him.
(Con)
My Lords, obviously the situation in the UK is extremely
concerning, but we should consider what is going on elsewhere in
the OECD: some countries have a better record than us, and others
have brought in extremely innovative initiatives. What can we
learn from other countries?
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for his question. Absolutely, we always
need to ensure that we are trying to learn from best examples,
either in this country or from around the world. The OECD talks
about four major strands: information and education; increasing
healthy choices; modifying costs, such as a sugar tax; and
restrictions on the placement of food and promotions. Noble Lords
can see that we are taking much action in all those areas. Most
of all, I am pleased to see that, influenced by a trailblazing
initiative started in Amsterdam, we are now funding five local
authorities to follow that across Birmingham, Bradford,
Nottingham and Lewisham to see what we can learn from those
initiatives.
of Darlington (Lab)
My Lords, what parents, health professionals, educators and
retailers want is some consistency and clarity from the
Government. Can the Minister confirm whether the Government
intend to maintain the previous Prime Minister’s plans to ditch
the vast majority of their 2020 obesity strategy, against the
advice of the current Chancellor, who just two months ago signed
a letter from former Health Ministers on the need for an
anti-obesity strategy? We need to know where we are.
(Con)
I hope the noble Baroness will forgive me if I am not quite sure
which former Prime Minister and Chancellor she is referring to. I
could not resist that, but I take her point and will respond in
writing.
(Con)
My Lords, is it not the case that we have had strategy after
strategy, all well intentioned—we all agree on what we want to
do—but it is not working? The Government pussyfoot around this.
As my noble friend Lord McColl said, we need to tell people that
it is not acceptable to be obese. If you are obese, guess what,
your children think that it is acceptable to be obese. Might not
we have a bit more of a robust strategy on this?
(Con)
I like to think that we have an active strategy in this space.
Personally, I prefer carrot to stick in this area. However, as I
answered in the previous question, I am prepared to learn from
anything that has worked in this country or abroad. If there is
evidence of where the stick works better than the carrot, I would
be willing to look at that and see whether we should be copying
some of it.
