Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on improving the health of pupils through increased participation in sport.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people, particularly those who are currently least active or from under-represented groups, have the best opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity.
Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport meet regularly as part of the Ministerial School Sport Board. The group last met on 20 February 2018.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to GPs to promote participation in sport to their patients.
Answered by Steve Brine
In 2017 Public Health England and Sport England established a co-funded, multi-component partnership called the Moving Healthcare Professional Programme (MHPP) which increases awareness and skills of health professionals to embed activity within routine care.
A component of MHPP includes the peer-to-peer Clinical Champions work-stream which is focused on developing the skills of health professionals to deliver brief advice on physical activity as part of routine care. This programme has trained over 5,000 healthcare professionals across the whole programme, the majority of whom are general practitioners in training.
In 2013, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published guidance recommending that healthcare professionals integrate brief advice on physical activity into routine clinical practice.
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines for physical activity include daily or weekly quantities of physical activity of at least moderate intensity, for example 150 minutes per week for adults.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with representatives of cycling organisations in the last twelve months.
Answered by Steve Brine
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any discussions with representatives of cycling organisations in the last 12 months.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on the national institute for obesity research policy unit's research into the causes of childhood obesity; and what the timetable is for that unit's findings to be provided to his Department.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department, through the National Institute for Health Research, is providing £5 million funding over five years for a Policy Research Unit on Obesity (OPRU). The OPRU commenced in September 2017 and the initial programme of research has been agreed and work has begun on the first set of projects, with clear timeframes for reporting to the Department. The first two to three years of planned work will concentrate on: marketing to children, tackling inequalities in childhood obesity, prevention of obesity in the early years, and supporting the evaluation of the Childhood Obesity Plan.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with retailers to limit the promotion of high sugar food and drink products.
Answered by Steve Brine
My Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not had any recent discussions with representatives from the retail industry to limit the promotion of high sugar food and drink products.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential benefits of cycling for public health.
Answered by Steve Brine
Cycling is one of the key physical activity examples promoted across the Chief Medical Officer guidelines for healthcare professionals to help them explain to patients the guidelines and how to implement them, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-physical-activity-guidelines.
Public Health England (PHE) promotes cycling as an accessible form of physical activity and its health benefits across its work on physical activity, health improvement and healthy environments. Guidance on the benefits of and practical approaches to creating environments that encourage cycling in publications such as PHE’s active travel briefing for local authorities available at:
The healthy weight and active design publications PHE has produced with the Town and Country Planning Association and Sport England respectively, available at:
https://www.sportengland.org/media/3426/spe003-active-design-published-october-2015-email-2.pdf
Cycling is prominent in social marketing campaigns that support people to get more physically active, such as One You for adults and Change4Life for children and families.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2018 to Question 126164, on British Soft Drinks Association, on what dates each of those meetings took place.
Answered by Steve Brine
Dates of meetings are provided in the table below.
Organisation | Date |
Coca Cola | 17 July 2017 |
9 January 2018 | |
|
|
Mars | 12 January 2017 |
20 January 2017 | |
17 June 2017 | |
22 September 2017 | |
1 November 2017 | |
20 December 2017 | |
|
|
British Soft Drinks Association | 22 March 2017 |
17 July 2017 | |
27 July 2017 | |
7 September 2017 | |
1 November 2017 | |
18 January 2018 |
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2018 to Question 126148, on Coca Cola and Mars UK, on what dates those meetings took place.
Answered by Steve Brine
Dates of meetings are provided in the table below.
Organisation | Date |
Coca Cola | 17 July 2017 |
9 January 2018 | |
|
|
Mars | 12 January 2017 |
20 January 2017 | |
17 June 2017 | |
22 September 2017 | |
1 November 2017 | |
20 December 2017 | |
|
|
British Soft Drinks Association | 22 March 2017 |
17 July 2017 | |
27 July 2017 | |
7 September 2017 | |
1 November 2017 | |
18 January 2018 |
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to increase the availability of food that is low in sugar content in vending machines on his Departmental estate.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department has one food and one drink vending machine on its estate. The Department is keen to ensure that low sugar options are available to staff and works closely with its catering supplier on an ongoing basis to provide a healthy offering. The focus has been on ensuring that low or no sugar drinks are readily available to staff.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he had made on the effect of confectionary price promotions on children’s health and well-being.
Answered by Steve Brine
In August 2017 we announced £5 million investment in a policy research unit on childhood obesity to provide a robust evidence, evaluation and research capability including looking at the impact of marketing, including promotions, on childhood obesity.
Alongside this, monitoring of progress by Public Health England (PHE) towards achieving the 20% sugar reduction in 2018, 2019 and 2020, will be achieved through the continued use of sales weighted average sugar levels and reviewing changes in product sales towards lower or no added sugar products. If businesses over promote high sugar products they will be less likely to achieve the sales weighted average sugar level per 100 grams for the 20% reduction. PHE’s first report will be published next month.
All reports and data published on progress in delivering our world-leading childhood obesity plan will be open to scrutiny. We will use this to determine whether sufficient progress has been made and whether alternative levers need to be considered.