MPs recommend 20% tax on sugary drinks to tackle child obesity

United Kingdom prime minister David Cameron has been urged to take “bold and fearless action” and back the sugar tax, following a report by MPs, which calls for a 20 per cent levy on sugary drinks and a ban on advertising junk food during family TV shows.

Nearly one-third of the sugar intake of 11- to 18- year-olds comes from sugar-sweetened drinks, it said.

They want a 20 per cent sugar tax on soft drinks, which a coalition of 19 medical bodies and charities is also calling for in a separate report today. It is also time to end the TV advertising of unhealthy food and drink before the 9pm watershed and the use of celebrities and cartoon characters to peddle junk food.

TOTNES MP Dr Sarah Wollaston has called for a “sugar tax” and advertising restrictions on unhealthy food to fight the UK’s obesity crisis.

Tougher controls on marketing and advertising of unhealthy food and drink.

The Health Select Committee’s recommendation that a tax on sugary drinks be introduced in the United Kingdom has been met with mixed reactions from the trade.

Here are a few things the things the Government and the food and drinks industry should do to help reduce obesity.

It’s been proposed that Jamie Oliver-style graphic warnings should be printed on the side of fizzy drinks – saying how many spoonfuls of sugar is contained in a single serving, while a 20 percent tax on full sugar soft drinks would fund the battle against childhood obesity.

Among the most disadvantaged children, a quarter becomes obese by the time they pass primary school, and the rate is double in the case of the most affluent.

Treating obesity and its consequences now costs the NHS £5.1bn every year. Unsurprisingly, neither does the British Soft Drinks Association.

The Government needs to be “bold and brave” in trying to tackle Britain’s obesity problem – and not rely on healthy eating campaigns and promoting exercise, the chair of a group of MPs has told Sky News.

Many food companies have voluntarily agreed to cut sugar in their products by ten per cent under the government’s Responsibility Deal, but academics say this does not go far enough. Indeed, the House of Commons health committee is making this recommendation to change the Department of Education policy for both academies as well as free schools. In a statement it said: ‘We must stress that a sugar tax on its own is unlikely to address the majority of the Government’s health concerns. That is why we are developing a comprehensive strategy looking at all the factors, including sugar consumption, that contribute to a child becoming overweight and obese.

“In fact, evidence from one of the most comprehensive studies into tackling obesity, the McKinsey Global Institute 2014 report, found that a tax would be much less effective than reducing portion sizes and reformulating products”.

“FDF, its members and the 400,000 people who work in the UK’s food and drink industry, will continue to work to reduce the incidence of obesity”.