Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of voluntary sugar reduction programmes.

Children currently consume twice the recommended level of sugar. There is strong evidence that high sugar intakes increase the risk of tooth decay and weight gain. Being overweight increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.

We face a childhood obesity crisis, and the Government is committed to tackling this and raising the healthiest generation of children. The Government has already taken action to ensure the implementation of restrictions on the advertising of high sugar food and drink, which will incentivise industry to reformulate and reduce sugar levels in their products.

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy has nearly halved the level of sugar in drinks in scope, and the voluntary sugar reduction programme has also reduced sugar in many products.

Working together as a mission led Government, and through our shift to prevention, we are reviewing the balance of mandatory and voluntary measures that will be required to deliver further reductions in sugar levels in everyday food and drink products.