:00:00. > :00:00.make statements first. No more point of order, we now come to the
:00:00. > :00:10.backbench motion on child obesity strategy. Doctor Sarah Wallace.
:00:11. > :00:14.Thank you to the backbench business committee for granting time for this
:00:15. > :00:18.debate and I would like to thank all my colleagues from across the House
:00:19. > :00:23.who are members of the Health Select Committee and for their work,
:00:24. > :00:27.including the staff of the committee, particularly Laura
:00:28. > :00:32.Daniels, for their work on the report on child obesity. Outside
:00:33. > :00:34.this house there are many individuals and organisations who
:00:35. > :00:39.tirelessly campaigned to improve children's health. I beg to move
:00:40. > :00:42.that this has called on the government to bring forward a bold
:00:43. > :00:50.and effective strategy to tackle childhood obesity. Perhaps we can
:00:51. > :00:55.start by looking to the example of Team GB and their success in the
:00:56. > :01:01.Olympics. On the morning of their track cycling victory the architect
:01:02. > :01:06.of the team's success, Sir David Brailsford, but their success down
:01:07. > :01:10.to the principle of marginal gains, the relentless pursuit of finding
:01:11. > :01:16.every efficiency from both the writer, the bike, the environment,
:01:17. > :01:21.their training regime. All of those marginal gains added together to win
:01:22. > :01:26.gold for Team GB and the Olympics. We need the same principle when it
:01:27. > :01:32.comes to tackling childhood obesity. Too often I hear people say it is
:01:33. > :01:37.all about education, or it is all about getting children to move more
:01:38. > :01:41.in PE and schools. But I would say there is no single measure, we all
:01:42. > :01:48.know this. This is an extremely complex problem that requires action
:01:49. > :01:53.at every level. I call on the Minister to look at every single
:01:54. > :01:58.aspect to tackling child obesity and should we leave any of those out, we
:01:59. > :02:03.would say to ourselves if we were running and cycling team, we would
:02:04. > :02:08.realise we could not have success. Let's apply that principle here.
:02:09. > :02:12.Let's set the scene about why that matters so much. We have a
:02:13. > :02:17.situation, and we know this from the Child measurement programme in our
:02:18. > :02:21.schools, that around one in five children are entering reception
:02:22. > :02:27.class either obese or overweight. By the time they leave in year six we
:02:28. > :02:32.find that a third are obese or overweight. Perhaps more worrying is
:02:33. > :02:39.the stark data around the health inequality of obesity. That is to
:02:40. > :02:44.say a quarter of children from the most disadvantaged groups in our
:02:45. > :02:48.society are leaving school not just overweight, but the bees. That is
:02:49. > :02:57.more than twice the rate than children of the most advanced
:02:58. > :03:01.families. My first question is will the strategy not just tackle the
:03:02. > :03:10.overall levels of obesity, but seek to narrow that yawning and growing
:03:11. > :03:14.gap in our society from the most advantaged and the least advantaged
:03:15. > :03:21.children? Any strategy that fails to narrow the gap will have failed our
:03:22. > :03:25.children. Would she agree that some of that gap and some of the overall
:03:26. > :03:32.problem is explained by the fact that people do not know how much
:03:33. > :03:37.sugar is in their food. Women are supposed to have six spoonfuls and
:03:38. > :03:41.men nine. Today a Snickers bar has five spoons of sugar, a yoghurt has
:03:42. > :03:46.seven spoonfuls of sugar and the Coca-Cola has nine. I did not eat
:03:47. > :03:53.any of them, you will be glad to hear. Would she agree that the
:03:54. > :03:59.awareness of how many spoonfuls of sugar is very important so people
:04:00. > :04:01.can manage their diets? I do the honourable gentleman for his
:04:02. > :04:07.intervention and I completely agree with him and I will come onto those
:04:08. > :04:13.points. I am pleased to hear he is not on a sugar high for this debate.
:04:14. > :04:18.Let's set out not only the scale of the problem, but the consequence.
:04:19. > :04:21.This has consequences for the whole lifetime of these children, not only
:04:22. > :04:27.for their physical health, but also for their emotional health, and the
:04:28. > :04:30.impact that school of bullying of those children who are stigmatised
:04:31. > :04:36.in the classroom because of their weight. We know the increasing
:04:37. > :04:43.evidence on the level at which obesity can be a factor in causing
:04:44. > :04:48.many preventable cancers, the impact it has on conditions like diabetes
:04:49. > :04:55.and heart disease. It is not just the cost to individuals, but the
:04:56. > :04:59.cost to wider society and the NHS. The minister will know how essential
:05:00. > :05:04.it is we tackle the issue of prevention and we cannot do so
:05:05. > :05:07.without tackling obesity and particularly starting with children
:05:08. > :05:12.because of the lifetime impact and the consequences of that. She will
:05:13. > :05:17.know that 9p in every pound we spend in the NHS is spent on diabetes
:05:18. > :05:25.alone. We estimate the cost overall to the NHS is now around 5.1 billion
:05:26. > :05:30.a year and the wider cost to society has been estimated, and they do
:05:31. > :05:35.vary, as high as 27 billion from the evidence we took on the health
:05:36. > :05:43.committee. We cannot afford to take no action on this. The other point I
:05:44. > :05:48.would make is that whilst physical activity is extraordinarily
:05:49. > :05:53.important, and it will strongly feature in government strategy I am
:05:54. > :05:57.confident, it is no good to focus entirely on physical activity.
:05:58. > :06:01.Physical activity is good for children no matter what their weight
:06:02. > :06:04.and for all of us no matter what our age, but any strategy that assumes
:06:05. > :06:10.you can tackle childhood obesity just through physical activity will
:06:11. > :06:14.simply be ignoring the overwhelming evidence, that most of this is about
:06:15. > :06:20.reducing calories. It is not just about sugar, although sometimes it
:06:21. > :06:28.is easy to be accused of demonising sugar. The fact is sugar in
:06:29. > :06:33.children's diets we know children are having more than three times the
:06:34. > :06:38.recommended amount of sugar and it is perhaps the easiest aspect of
:06:39. > :06:41.this to tackle. The Minister will recognise when talking about overall
:06:42. > :06:50.calories it includes fats... I give way. I need to declare an interest.
:06:51. > :06:55.My union have been pressing me to remind my honourable friend that
:06:56. > :07:02.sugar intake has a disastrous effect on the teeth, which is decay. Is she
:07:03. > :07:07.aware, if she could pause for a moment, that the most common cause
:07:08. > :07:12.for hospital admissions for 5-9 -year-olds is tooth decay? Every
:07:13. > :07:16.week almost 900 children in this country will require hospital
:07:17. > :07:24.treatment for tooth to gay and the biggest single factor is sugar? It
:07:25. > :07:29.is one of the point I was going to come onto and I completely agree
:07:30. > :07:35.with him and we must not forget the impact of sugar on children's teeth.
:07:36. > :07:42.Also on that issue there is a great health inequality that we recognise.
:07:43. > :07:46.How should we tackle this? I have spoken many times in the past about
:07:47. > :07:50.the sugary drinks tax, but I recognise that is not where the
:07:51. > :07:56.greatest gain lies when it comes to tackling childhood obesity. As the
:07:57. > :08:01.Minister will recognise from the evidence presented by public health
:08:02. > :08:04.in England that price promotions will form an extraordinarily
:08:05. > :08:09.important part of the childhood obesity strategy if it is to be
:08:10. > :08:15.effective. It is a staggering fact that around 40% of what we spend on
:08:16. > :08:20.food and drink at home comes from price promotions. But these are not
:08:21. > :08:26.saving us as much money as we would assume, they are encouraging us to
:08:27. > :08:30.consume more. In British supermarkets are huge amount of
:08:31. > :08:35.those promotions is going on sugary and other unhealthy products. I
:08:36. > :08:39.would call on the government as part of their strategy to tackle back and
:08:40. > :08:43.we need to have a clear and level playing field that looks at
:08:44. > :08:47.rebalancing price promotions. But that has to be done in a way that
:08:48. > :08:54.does not drive us to promoting other products such as alcohol. A very
:08:55. > :08:58.careful evidence -based look. I am grateful and I am delighted she is
:08:59. > :09:03.pursuing this issue in a debate today. Actually that whether there
:09:04. > 0:02:09could be a tax on the ingredient of sugar in