Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Healthy Start scheme in achieving the objectives of the Childhood Obesity Plan.

The Healthy Start scheme delivers the goals of the Childhood Obesity Plan by supporting lower-income pregnant women and families to eat healthily. Healthy Start helps to encourage a healthy diet among pregnant women and children under four from low income households. It does this by providing vouchers to these families to purchase fruit, vegetables and milk.

The Government has provided nutritional support to families for many years and our world-leading Childhood Obesity Plan published in August last year re-affirmed its commitment to Healthy Start and to helping children and families to recognise and make healthier choices and be more active.