Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage healthy eating among children in Newcastle Central constituency.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) North East facilitates a regional Healthy Weight and Physical Activity Network for local authority public health leads. Through this network, OHID North East has shared national policy, evidence, data and intelligence and social marketing campaigns in relation to healthy eating. Newcastle City Council is an active member of this network and regularly shares examples of local practice. Recently, this has included sharing the work it has undertaken with partners to deliver the holiday activity fund programme, which offered a range of free activities and nutritious food for school-aged children and young people.

The North East Association of Directors of Public Health has agreed priority areas for regional work for the next three years. One of these is to understand the current position across the North East in relation to food strategies and explore potential opportunities for collaboration. Work to map existing strategies will begin in January 2023 and the Newcastle area will be contributing to this regional exercise.