Junk Food Advertising and Childhood Obesity

Debate between Conor McGinn and Kirstene Hair

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Westminster Hall

[Kirstene Hair (Angus) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Dorries. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Erewash (Maggie Throup) on securing this important debate. Childhood obesity is a stubborn problem in Scotland. Some 29% of Scottish children are at risk of being overweight or obese, and that figure has remained static since 1998. While recent years have seen a welcome decline in childhood obesity from 17% in 2014 to 14% in 2016, that figure is still no better than 20 years ago. As other Members have mentioned, obesity increases someone’s chances of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes, among other conditions.

Every child deserves the healthiest possible start to life, so it is vital that the UK Government and the Scottish Government continue to work across every channel to reduce childhood obesity. They should not simply tinker at the side lines, but introduce a number of radical reforms to extend life chances, reduce the pressure on the health service and create a healthier society overall. Our childhood obesity problem has many causes, and there are many things that the Government can do to help address it. One is the curtailing of the advertisement of unhealthy food in environments where children are likely to encounter it. Evidence shows that children’s exposure to food advertisements can have a major influence on a child’s diet and therefore their weight. Cutting their exposure to advertisements for unhealthy food is therefore a vital tool in the fight against childhood obesity.

I am pleased by the tough line already being taken on junk food advertisements. The total ban on advertising less healthy food during children’s TV programmes or on children’s TV channels is a common-sense restriction. None the less, TV is not everything. Children are spending less and less time watching TV and more and more time on the internet.

[Conor McGinn]

We are talking about TV, and we have heard a lot about advertising, but it is important to look at what happens between the adverts: the programming. Some 18 months ago, ITV launched a very good initiative called “I am Team GB”, where it switched off the channel for an hour. Some 2,500 sports clubs across the UK opened their doors and more than 4 million people were motivated to take part in sport. Research shows that food-related programming promoting a healthy lifestyle has as much if not more of an impact than advertising. In issuing charters, it is important that the Government also regulate that programming so that we see a joined-up approach with good programming that promotes healthy living.