Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made on implementing the Child Health Action Plan.

The Government has committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever, ensuring that every child has a healthy, happy start to life, and giving mental health the same focus as physical health. This commitment was recently reaffirmed in the 10 Year Health Plan, which outlined the first steps we are taking to progress this goal.

The Government has taken action already, including through:

• investing £11 million in a supervised toothbrushing scheme for children in our most deprived communities aged between three and five, to combat tooth decay.
• providing a £126 million funding boost to the joint Department for Health and Social Care and Department for Education’s Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme, to help set up every child for the best start in life; and
• launching a landmark consultation on 2 September to protect children from the harm caused by high-caffeine energy drinks under new proposals to ban their sale to under-16s.