Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the Healthy Start scheme delivers the goals of the Childhood Obesity Plan.

The Healthy Start Scheme delivers the goals of the Childhood Obesity Plan by supporting lower-income pregnant women and families to eat healthily. Through the Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. Healthy Start helps to encourage a healthy diet of pregnant women and children under four from low income households. It does this by providing vouchers to these families to purchase fruit, vegetables and milk.

The Government has provided nutritional support to families for many years and our world-leading childhood obesity plan published in August last year re-affirmed its commitment to Healthy Start and to helping children and families to recognise and make healthier choices and be more active.