Issue - meetings

To consider the Motion submitted by Councillor Moncur.

It was moved by Councillor Moncur, seconded by Lappin and unanimously:

RESOLVED:

Support for National Action to tackle obesity

The Council notes that obesity is a major public health concern with the majority of adults in England being overweight or obese and a more than a third of our 10 to 11 years old being overweight or obese.

It is estimated that obesity is responsible for more than 30,000 deaths each year. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of a wide range of diseases including Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and many cancers. It also negatively affects quality of life and mental wellbeing.

No one is ‘immune’ to obesity, but some people are more likely to become overweight or obese than others. Factors of income, social deprivation and ethnicity all have an important impact on the likelihood of person becoming obese. Data from the National Child Measurement Programme shows that obesity levels in the most deprived 10% of children is approximately double that of the least deprived 10%.

Obesity places a huge strain on health and social care as well has having a broader impact on economic development. The estimated annual cost of obesity in England is around £32.5billion and if no action is taken these costs will increase.

We recognise that the causes of obesity are complex. Environmental, physiological and behavioural factors all interrelate and play their part in influencing the prevalence of obesity. This is why at a local level Sefton has a wide range of activities to tackle obesity. This includes signing up to a Healthy Weight Declaration, providing an integrated healthy lifestyle and wellness programme, having health promoting planning policies and through Active Sefton and our 0 to 19 service working with schools to be health promoting.

However, we feel more needs to be done by national government to support the efforts of local areas and we call upon the Government to lead on three areas of action:

Firstly Implement the Food Revolution actions.

This is a campaign led by the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and its Australian partners at the Good Foundation. It is committed to inspiring real, meaningful, positive change in the way children access, consume and understand food. 

Working with medical experts and professionals Food Revolution has created a six-point plan for action which they believe governments across the world should be working towards as a priority.

We welcome that the UK government has implemented the first action, which is the introduction of a sugary drink tax, but strongly advocate that the government also acts upon the other 5 actions. These are; 

1. The introduction of sugar reformulation targets to reduce excessive sugar in all products and have penalties for non-compliance,
2. Introduce fair marketing which would include a ban on food advertising targeted at children and cutting promotion of sugary products,
3. Making clearer labelling mandatory with clear on-pack sugar information, such as traffic light labelling and having restrictions on portion sizes for confectionary and sugary drinks,
4. Improving access to healthy food  ...  view the full minutes text for item 115