Food, Diet and Obesity Committee Report

Baroness Manzoor Excerpts

Friday 28th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, what an excellent and informative debate this has been. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, and her committee members for this timely, hard-hitting and excellent report. She made an outstanding speech opening this debate. The report makes some important key recommendations. As noble Lords have rightly highlighted, two-thirds of adults in the UK are currently overweight or obese. The UK has the third-highest rate of obesity in Europe, behind only Malta and Turkey. While the rates of obesity among adults appear to have stabilised over the past five years, we clearly still have a long way to go. Much greater pace needs to be introduced to tackle, in a holistic way, obesity and the issues that surround it.

We are often bombarded by statements that healthy eating is simply a choice, but I am afraid that the choice is often illusory. It is not just as simple as that, as has been powerfully articulated by the noble Baronesses, Lady Suttie, Lady Freeman of Steventon and Lady Goudie, and my noble friends Lady Jenkin of Kennington and Lord Caithness in relation to issues around ultra-processed foods. Those who cannot afford healthier alternatives or children in schools who are not given healthier options do not have the luxury of choice. Nor is there sufficient choice of quality foods for those on lower incomes, as outlined so ably by the noble Baroness, Lady Brown of Silvertown. Oviva, a provider of NHS weight management services, estimates that 22% of its patients are in the bottom socioeconomic groups and 13% are unemployed, as my noble friend Lady Browning and other noble Lords referred to.

As has also been mentioned, eating habits are often formed in childhood. The foods made available to our children often follow them into adulthood, and the choices made, as the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, outlined, can remain for a very long time. NHS Digital’s 2024 national child measurement programme showed that two in five children in England leave primary school above a healthy weight, as referred to by the noble Lords, Lord Rennard and Lord Brooke. As the report makes clear, environmental factors are one of the most significant drivers of those habits.

If we as a society are to have any hope of tackling the scale of the obesity crisis, we must start by making positive changes in the food environment our children are exposed to, in relation to not only food safety but quality, as my noble friend Lady Coffey outlined so ably. There is precedent for this. The Japanese health authority is world leading. A 2021 article in Pediatrics International pointed to the comprehensive and consistent health education in Japanese schools. This is enabled by a national curriculum that embeds scientifically backed teaching on how to form healthier eating habits and the provision in every school of a qualified nutritionist to prepare school meal plans that are low in salt, sugar and fats. Will the Minister look at working with her ministerial colleagues in the Department for Education to ensure better health and nutrition education?

All this is essential to address the issues identified by the noble Lord, Lord Darzi. As his report established, we need to move away from reactive medicine and towards a far greater focus on preventive healthcare. I know the Minister supports this. Of course, a healthier population is the foundation of a healthier economy. Frontier Economics estimated that in 2023 the total economic cost of obesity was £98 billion, as so ably outlined by my noble friends Lord Bethell and Lord McColl. It is evidently in all our best interests to make further progress here.

There are also a few warnings that we must heed, which a number of noble Lords have outlined. First, all noble Lords will be aware of the recent rise in the use and availability of weight-loss drugs such as semaglutide and tirzepatide. While these drugs have some success in helping people, they should be available only to those who need them, access should not be limited by affordability, and we must be careful about overmedication. Secondly, we must be wary of vested interests, as my noble friend Lady Browning, the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, and other noble Lords highlighted very powerfully. The Government have recently announced their food strategy board, comprising the heads of a number of large food retailers. I appreciate the importance of bringing the industry together, but there must be an assurance that such a body will not simply lobby for its own interests to the detriment of public health. What safeguards will be put in place to address that?

In conclusion, the Government need to address this urgently and put in place key preventive strategies to address the root causes of obesity and poor health now. Although it will be welcome, we cannot afford to wait for the Government’s 10-year plan. Indeed, the NHS cannot afford financially and structurally to wait that long. Action on tackling obesity does not require the reinvention of the wheel. As the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, my noble friends Lady Meyer, Lord Bethell and Lady Jenkin and other noble Lords have said, the research has been done, the reports have been published and it now falls on the Government to be bold, to act and to implement the recommendations at pace. All the evidence is there.