NHS: Five Year Forward View

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, on the subject of the prevention of obesity, can the Minister say what steps the Government are taking to introduce a tougher regulatory environment for food companies whose products are damaging the health of many thousands of people in this country?

[Earl Howe]

Many food companies—not all, but many of the larger ones—have already taken steps, for example, to reduce the levels of salt and saturated fat in their products. We need to go further. This has been done by the previous Administration and the current Government on a voluntary basis. We think that that has worked well. Nevertheless, we have never excluded the possibility of regulation, where we think that it is justified. At present, we believe that there is sufficient scope to make progress without regulation, but that is a matter we will keep under review.