Obesity: Children
(asked on 1st February 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle childhood obesity.
We launched ‘Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action’ in August 2016. Our world-leading plan focuses on actions that are likely to have the biggest impact on reducing obesity in children and young people. Key measures in the plan include the soft drinks industry levy, the sugar reduction and wider reformulation programme, and helping children to enjoy an hour of physical activity every day.
‘Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action’ is available at:
Current advertising restrictions in the United Kingdom on high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) products are among the toughest in the world. Strict new rules came into effect in July 2017 banning the advertising of HFSS food or drink products in children’s media. These restrictions apply across all non-broadcast media including in print, cinema, online and in social media.
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 on childhood obesity. We will use this, alongside other reports and data published on progress in delivering our world-leading childhood obesity plan, to determine whether sufficient progress has been made and whether alternative levers need to be considered.
My Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health, has not had any recent discussions with representatives from social media companies on restricting junk food adverts to children.