Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking in response to the finding of research by P. Zainotto et al, forecasting obesity to 2010, published in 2006, that around 97 per cent of obese children come from families where at least one parent is obese or overweight.

We know obesity rates in children are far too high and children in lower income groups are more likely to be obese than the rest of the population, but it is an issue across all groups.

Tackling obesity, particularly in children, is one of our major priorities. Progress has been made in recent years, but we know we have much further to go. We will announce our plans for tackling childhood obesity in the new year.