Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she taking to help support parents to tackle obesity in their children.

We are taking strong action to support children and their families in achieving and maintaining a healthier weight. The Government is investing approximately £300 million to improve support for families though the joint Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme. The programme will implement many elements of the Best Start for Life Vision and is delivering a step change in outcomes for babies, children, and their parents and carers in 75 local authorities in England, including those with high levels of deprivation.

The funding package includes £50 million to invest in infant feeding services, which will enable participating local authorities to design and deliver a blended offer of advice and support, in line with local needs.

We support more than three million children through the Healthy Foods Scheme. We also support parents with primary aged children in England to eat well, and move more, through Better Health Families. This includes healthy eating advice and easy recipes, a Food Scanner app to help families to swap less healthy foods and drinks to healthier alternatives, and the Healthy Steps email-programme to inspire and support parents to take easy steps to improve their families' health and wellbeing.

We work with the Department for Education to ensure that children are provided healthy food options in early years settings, and in school. For children aged zero to five years old, the Early Years Foundation Stage framework states that where children are provided with meals, snacks, and drinks, they must be healthy, balanced, and nutritious. The Eat Better, Start Better guidelines and example menus support parents, carers, and anyone working with children to provide healthy food options.

The School Food Standards are set in legislation and require that school caterers serve healthy and nutritious food and drinks, to ensure children get the energy and nutrition they need throughout the school day. Foods high in fat, salt, and sugar are restricted. We are also helping schools boost physical activity to help children maintain a healthy weight and good overall health through the Primary School PE and Sport Premium and the School Games Organiser Network.

In addition, primary school children are educated about healthy eating through the relationships, sex, and health education curriculum. By the end of primary school, pupils should know what constitutes a healthy diet, the principles of planning and preparing a range of healthy meals, the characteristics of a poor diet, and risks associated with unhealthy eating. We have programmes to identify children living with excess weight, and local authorities and the National Health Service in England provide weight management services.

The National Child Measurement Programme monitors the weight status of children at the start and end of primary school. The programme provides is a useful prompt to parents and schools to support healthy eating and physical activity. Data is used to help local authorities plan healthy weight, food and activity support and services for children and their families.

Local authorities can fund weight management services to support children and families, to achieve a healthier weight from their Public Health Grant. The NHS has commissioned a number of Complications from Excess Weight clinics across England for children and young people living with complications related to severe obesity. We are also delivering an ambitious programme of work to create a healthier environment to help people achieve and maintain a healthier weight.

Regulations on out of home calorie labelling for food sold in large businesses, including restaurants, cafes, and takeaways, came into force in April 2022. Restrictions on the placement of products high in fat, sugar, or salt in key selling locations, came into force on 1 October 2022.  We will be implementing restrictions on the sale of less healthy products by volume price, for instance three for two offers, and will introduce restrictions on the advertising of less healthy products before 9:00pm on television. We will also be implementing restrictions on paid for online advertising for less healthy products, from 1 October 2025.

We are working with the food industry to ensure it is easier for the public to make healthier choices and make further progress on reformulation. In addition, the Food Data Transparency Partnership will help enable and encourage food companies to voluntarily demonstrate progress on the healthiness of their sales.