Childhood Obesity

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Thursday 17th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I am afraid the noble Lord is testing my memory as to what that was. If he will excuse me, I will find out what it was and write to him.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, obviously the situation in the UK is extremely concerning, but we should consider what is going on elsewhere in the OECD: some countries have a better record than us, and others have brought in extremely innovative initiatives. What can we learn from other countries?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. Absolutely, we always need to ensure that we are trying to learn from best examples, either in this country or from around the world. The OECD talks about four major strands: information and education; increasing healthy choices; modifying costs, such as a sugar tax; and restrictions on the placement of food and promotions. Noble Lords can see that we are taking much action in all those areas. Most of all, I am pleased to see that, influenced by a trailblazing initiative started in Amsterdam, we are now funding five local authorities to follow that across Birmingham, Bradford, Nottingham and Lewisham to see what we can learn from those initiatives.