Sugar Tax

Baroness Howells of St Davids Excerpts
Wednesday 3rd February 2016

(8 years, 9 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Prior of Brampton Portrait Lord Prior of Brampton
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My Lords, exercise may be a part of our strategy to tackle obesity, but certainly not the major part.

Baroness Howells of St Davids Portrait Baroness Howells of St Davids (Lab)
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My Lords, I am sure that the House is aware that sugar comes from many sources—sugar cane, sugar beet and in fruit. Which sugar would we tax?

Lord Prior of Brampton Portrait Lord Prior of Brampton
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The noble Baroness makes an interesting point. This is one of the difficulties with the proposal for a sugar tax. We must be very careful about which sugars we would tax. I cannot give the noble Baroness a proper answer save that where sugar taxes have been introduced, they apply to where sugar is added as part of the manufacturing process or where it is present in syrups and fruit juices, but not where it occurs in, for example, fruit or vegetables.