Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce the consumption of junk food among children.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government advice on a healthy, balanced diet is encapsulated in the United Kingdom’s national food model, the Eatwell Guide. The Department promotes the Eatwell Guide principles through platforms such as the National Health Service website and social marketing campaigns including Healthier Families and Better Health. More information on the marketing campaigns is available at the following links:
https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/
We have taken action to empower people to make healthier food choices, which includes implementing regulations in 2022 on out of home calorie labelling for food sold in large businesses including restaurants, cafes and takeaways and restricting the placement of less healthy products in key selling locations in store and online. We are committed to bringing forward further measures by 2025, restricting adverts on television for less healthy foods and drinks before the 9pm watershed, as well as paid-for adverts online and restricting volume price promotions of less healthy foods such as buy-one-get-one-free offers.
Measures to restrict advertising are underpinned by evidence which suggests that exposure to high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) advertising can affect what and when children eat, shaping children’s food preferences from a young age. Over time, excess consumption can lead to children becoming overweight or obese, all of which puts their future health at risk. This evidence is referenced in the recent consultation from December 2022, Introducing further advertising restrictions on TV and online for products high in fat, salt or sugar: consultation on secondary legislation. We will publish the response to the consultation in due course. More information on the consultation is available at the following link:
Through our Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme together help more than three million children. Over £200 million is devoted to the Healthy Food Schemes each year to reflect this commitment.
The School Food Standards are set in legislation and require school caterers to serve healthy and nutritious food and drinks to ensure children get the energy and nutrition they need throughout the school day. The standards define the foods and drinks that must be provided, those which are restricted to a minimum, and those which must not be provided. HFSS foods are restricted.
Education around healthy eating is also covered through several curriculum subjects including design and technology, science and health education. The relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance states that 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.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help encourage the consumption of healthy foods by children.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government advice on a healthy, balanced diet is encapsulated in the United Kingdom’s national food model, the Eatwell Guide. The Department promotes the Eatwell Guide principles through platforms such as the National Health Service website and social marketing campaigns including Healthier Families and Better Health. More information on the marketing campaigns is available at the following links:
https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/
We have taken action to empower people to make healthier food choices, which includes implementing regulations in 2022 on out of home calorie labelling for food sold in large businesses including restaurants, cafes and takeaways and restricting the placement of less healthy products in key selling locations in store and online. We are committed to bringing forward further measures by 2025, restricting adverts on television for less healthy foods and drinks before the 9pm watershed, as well as paid-for adverts online and restricting volume price promotions of less healthy foods such as buy-one-get-one-free offers.
Measures to restrict advertising are underpinned by evidence which suggests that exposure to high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) advertising can affect what and when children eat, shaping children’s food preferences from a young age. Over time, excess consumption can lead to children becoming overweight or obese, all of which puts their future health at risk. This evidence is referenced in the recent consultation from December 2022, Introducing further advertising restrictions on TV and online for products high in fat, salt or sugar: consultation on secondary legislation. We will publish the response to the consultation in due course. More information on the consultation is available at the following link:
Through our Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme together help more than three million children. Over £200 million is devoted to the Healthy Food Schemes each year to reflect this commitment.
The School Food Standards are set in legislation and require school caterers to serve healthy and nutritious food and drinks to ensure children get the energy and nutrition they need throughout the school day. The standards define the foods and drinks that must be provided, those which are restricted to a minimum, and those which must not be provided. HFSS foods are restricted.
Education around healthy eating is also covered through several curriculum subjects including design and technology, science and health education. The relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance states that 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.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS figures showing a recent increase in hospital admissions for cases of (a) malnutrition and (b) nutritional deficiencies, published in The Guardian on 21 December 2023, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to (i) affordable and (ii) nutritious food.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Malnutrition is a complex condition, and it is unclear from hospital admissions data what the underlying causes are. Through our Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme together help more than three million children.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following a survey by the School and Public Health Nurses Association and the British Dental Association in June which showed that 65 per cent of health practitioners reported that children’s health had got worse over the last year as a result of hunger, what plans they have to address hunger and poor nutrition in children.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government understands concerns regarding food inflation and its impact on the current cost of living, and as such is providing support of over £94 billion over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals.
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 13.6% in the year to August 2023. This was down from 14.9% in July and a recent high of 19.2% in March 2023, which was the highest rate seen for over 45 years. This means that food prices are still increasing but at a slower rate than before.
Through the Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. The three Healthy Food Schemes, namely Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, together help more than three million children. They support wider Government priorities on obesity and levelling up. The schemes help to support children and babies when they are at home, in childcare and in early years at school, and pregnant women. From April 2021, the value of the Healthy Start increased from £3.10 to £4.25, providing additional support to pregnant women and families on lower incomes to make healthy food choices.
The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme provides approximately 2.2 million children in Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school. Around 419 million pieces of fruit and vegetables were distributed to children in 2022/2023. In addition, the Nursery Milk Scheme provides a reimbursement to childcare providers for a daily 1/3 pint portion of milk to children and babies.
Free school meals are provided to over one third of school children. This includes two million pupils who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals, making up 23.8% of all pupils, which is an increase from January 2021 when 1.7 million or 20.8% pupils were eligible. In addition, almost 1.3 million more infants enjoy a free and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of universal infant free school meals in 2014. A further 90,000 disadvantaged pupils in further education also receive a free meal at lunch time. Overall, we spend over £1 billion per annum delivering free lunches to a large proportion of school children.
The Government’s wider programme of work to create a healthier environment to help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight includes:
- regulations which restrict the placement of products high in saturated fat, salt or sugar in store and online;
- efforts to reformulate products high in calories, sugar and salt;
- the Soft Drinks Industry Levy; and
- calorie labelling regulations for food sold in large out of home businesses.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to provide healthy alternatives to cows' milk under the Nursery Milk Scheme for children who cannot consume cow’s milk for (a) medical, (b) ethical and (c) religious reasons.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
A Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition/Committee on Toxicity working group has been established to jointly consider the nutritional and toxicological aspects associated with the consumption of plant-based alternatives to milk, such as soya, almond and oat drinks. The Government will consider the position on the Nursery Milk Scheme once this working group has reported.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which schools in Christchurch constituency are registered for the school milk subsidy scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The School Milk scheme offers a financial contribution to the cost of providing certain milk products to schoolchildren across the UK. The majority of applications to the scheme are made by local authorities, specialist companies and bodies who register and claim on their behalf of individual schools. No central information on participating schools is therefore held centrally to provide a breakdown to the level of individual parliamentary constituencies.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which nurseries are registered for the nursery milk scheme in Christchurch constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Details of individual childcare settings cannot be provided as this may contain personal identifiable data.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to prevent ultra-processed foods from being served in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Diets high in calories and saturated fat, salt, and sugar are associated with an increased risk of obesity and chronic diseases.
The standards for school food are set out in the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014, accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools/school-food-standards-practical-guide. These standards were implemented by the Department to ensure that schools provide pupils with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that pupils have the energy and nutrition they need throughout the school day.
The standards set out that a pupil’s healthy, balanced diet should consist of:
The standards restrict foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality reformed or reconstituted foods. The standards also specify which types of food should be served at school and how often. For example, one or more portions of vegetables or salad should be served as an accompaniment, and one or more portions of fruit must be provided every day. There must also be at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week. These standards ensure that pupils always have healthy options available for their school lunch.
The Department keeps these standards under review.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for health policies of the quality of food provided by foodbanks; and whether he plans to provide vouchers for people using foodbanks to purchase healthy foods.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department has made no specific assessment and has no current plans to provide vouchers for foodbanks. Through the Healthy Food Schemes the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those families who need it the most. Healthy Start, the Nursery Milk Scheme and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme together help more than three million children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure (a) babies and (b) children are (i) well nourished and (ii) warm in all homes; and if he will introduce a screening process to help ensure children in hospitals are not discharged to settings where those conditions cannot be met.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Through the Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those families who need it the most. Healthy Start, the Nursery Milk Scheme and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme together help more than three million children.
The Government is investing £12 billion in Help to Heat schemes to help make people’s homes warmer and less costly to heat. This includes £1.1 billion to the Home Upgrade Grant until 2025, of which £500 million has already been granted to local authorities as part of the Sustainable Warmth Competition to provide energy-efficiency upgrades to lower-income, energy inefficient homes.
Children are discharged to their parent or carer when they are medically fit to leave the hospital. If a health practitioner has cause to suspect that the child was at risk of neglect, they would follow the child safeguarding processes. We do not intend to introduce a new screening process at present.