Ian Roome
Main Page: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)(2 days, 3 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate
Layla Moran
I pay enormous tribute to the former member of the Committee. I can entirely understand why he was elevated to other things, but he was very much my right-hand man through the obesity side of this inquiry. I completely agree with him—it was stark. We know what works, and the path for how we do this is clear, but what was missing was a joined-up approach, not just across Departments but within the NHS itself. He is completely right that there are things that work and we know what we need to do, but at the moment we are not seeing that joined-up approach that we need Government to take to achieve it.
Ian Roome (North Devon) (LD)
Given that child obesity is at record levels, what single intervention does my hon. Friend believe would make the greatest difference to preventing children from developing obesity in the first place?
Layla Moran
I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. The rising rates of obesity among reception-age children should give us real pause for thought. If we ever wanted proof that obesity is not an individual failing, it is the fact that it seems to be most acute among that population. There is no silver bullet—that is the trap we fall into—despite the lobbying not to do this or that, whether that is about the food industry or advertising. It will never be one thing. It will be a suite of measures that we put around children: stopping fast food joints being on their walk to school; supporting their families with sustained funding, so that they can have healthy food at home; and bans on advertising, which we know works on children, because otherwise, why would the companies do it?