Health: Obesity

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Thursday 20th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

We take obesity extremely seriously and have a lot of initiatives going forward such as introducing a soft drinks industry levy, which will come into effect in April. The important thing could be harnessing new technology. We need to make sure that we can get to people, particularly young people. We will work with Public Health England on good initiative ideas, and with commercial players to investigate opportunities to bring forward a suite of applications that enable consumers to make the best use of technology and data to inform their eating decisions.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, in the SACN report, the variation between different groups was seen to be quite unacceptable. For example, in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the difference between different demographic groups for men was 16 years. To what does the Minister attribute this inequality and what do the Government intend to do about it?

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

It is definitely true that inequality has a part to play but it is interesting that it is due not only to funding. While I was researching this, I noticed comparative statistics on life expectancy at birth across the G7 nations. Those show no direct correlation between GDP expenditure and health outcomes. For instance, the USA spent 16.6% of its GDP on healthcare but has the lowest life expectancy at 78 years. Italy spends the least at only 9.1% of its GDP and has the second highest life expectancy at 82 years. Diet and lifestyle—which everybody has a responsibility for—go a long way in playing a part in this.