Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to raise public awareness of obesity-linked illnesses.

The Department is committed to action on obesity including raising awareness of obesity related illness. The Department’s ‘Better Health’ campaigns provide resources including free evidence-based digital tools, highlight health effects of obesity, and support people to make and sustain changes to improve their health. They include the Better Health websites, email programmes, and NHS Weight Loss, Food Scanner, Couch to 5K and Active 10 apps.

The NHS Health Check assesses the top risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes, including body mass index. Each year the programme engages over one million people aged between 40 and 74 years old and identifies around 317,000 people living with obesity who are made aware of the risks of developing CVD and diabetes and are then provided with advice and support to reduce their risk and referral for treatment if needed.

We have also recently published a Major Conditions Strategy case for change which highlights risk factors, such as obesity, in contributing to diseases that are collectively the greatest contributors to ill-health and early mortality. We will be publishing a final strategy next year.