Tackling Obesity

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Thursday 12th November 2026 Commons Chamber

Select Committee statement

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

We now come to the Select Committee statement on behalf of the Health and Social Care Committee. Layla Moran will speak for up to 10 minutes, during which there will be no interventions. At the conclusion of the statement, Members may ask questions on the subject of the statement; those contributions must be questions, not speeches.

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[Layla Moran]

All credit to the hon. Gentleman. As I said, I have faced a similar journey, and it is hard to keep the weight off, because once we have lived with it for a long while, our underlying endocrinology changes. People need to appreciate that if we allow young people to live with obesity, it affects their whole life. With any luck, we can avoid the point where they end up with diabetes, which can be reversible, as we know. He is completely right: this needs to happen in school, but it is not just about school. We need to recognise that when those children are at home, their families need help. We need to drive down the prices of healthy fruit and veg, and that needs a joined-up strategy with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. That is why we are calling for a cross-Cabinet Committee—because if any one Department tries to do this on its own, it will continue to fail.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I thank the Select Committee Chair for her statement and all Members who shared their stories.