Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are considering taking steps to reduce differences in levels of obesity between more and less deprived areas; and if so, what steps.

In Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2, published in June 2018, we have set a bold ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce the gap in obesity between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030. We want to achieve this by ensuring that we are supporting parents, particularly in the most deprived families, to help their children have the best start in life. We have reiterated this ambition in our vision document Prevention is better than cure, published on 5 November 2018, and in the NHS Long Term Plan published on 8 January 2019.

The childhood obesity plan delivers school based interventions including revenue from the soft drinks industry levy being invested in programmes targeted at disadvantaged children including up to £26 million to fund a breakfast club programme between 2017-18 and 2019-20 and £22 million in an Essential Life Skills programme in 12 Opportunity Areas to enable disadvantaged children aged 5-18 to participate in regular extra-curricular activities, including sporting activities, to develop essential life skills.

Through the Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. The three schemes that make up this programme, Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and School Fruit and Vegetables, help to support children, babies and women through pregnancy, when they are at home, in childcare and in early years at school.