Hopsitals: Soft Drinks

(asked on 7th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the consumption was of sugary drinks in NHS hospitals by volume in 2017.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 14th June 2018

NHS England does not hold complete data on the total consumption of sugary drinks across the whole National Health Service.

NHS England is currently analysing the sales data from a limited number of trusts collected since July 2017. Trusts and hospital retailers have committed to reduce the sales of sugary drinks to below 10% of total sales and initial analysis suggests this has led to a reduction in sales of sugary drinks and increase in low or zero sugar drinks.

Sales data on chocolates or fruit are not held centrally by NHS England.

The NHS is committed to improving the nutritional quality of food and drink sold on NHS sites.

NHS England has been taking action to improve the healthy choices available to staff, visitors and patients in NHS hospitals through an indicator in the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme. This scheme incentivises NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts and retailers within hospitals to remove foods which are high in fat, sugar and salt from NHS retail premises, prevent the promotion of unhealthy products and increase the healthy options available. The incentive was worth over £30 million in 2017/18.

Reticulating Splines