Weight Loss Medication

Baroness Boycott Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that interest in this area from this House and the other House has been very high. I think it is because of the progress that has been made. Of course, everyone looks at practice, in this country and other countries, to inform how we work. There is no doubt that those who can afford to pay to have access privately are seeing a significant difference. We want to make sure that we move forward so that the treatment is available for everyone.

[Baroness Boycott (CB)]

My Lords, I think everyone welcomes the advent of these drugs for people who have serious weight problems, but what happens when they come off them, and what are the Government doing to ensure that we have a much healthier diet available to people of any income, wherever they are? Quite frankly, if your diet becomes one Coca-Cola and one hamburger rather than five times that, it will not fix your health in the long term. It might get your weight down, but you will still be, essentially, a malnourished human being.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

There is no doubt that, when these injections are working alongside other weight management approaches, including education around diet generally as well as exercise, the chances of success on all the issues that the noble Baroness raises are far greater. We need to understand the longer-term impacts of being on these drugs—whether it will be safe for people to be on them for longer. We need to understand the challenges as well as the opportunities. There are opportunities coming forward for other areas of medicine from the use of these drugs.