Burstow battles on for childhood obesity prevention Bill

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 10th Feb 2005

Sutton and Cheam MP Paul Burstow was this week again at the forefront of a cross-party campaign to introduce legislation to tackle childhood obesity, which has more than trebled in the last decade.

The Children's Food Bill, which Mr Burstow is a key sponsor of, was presented to the House of Commons earlier this week (Tues 8th) for the second time. The Bill was first introduced back in May 2004 but was not taken any further due to lack of Parliamentary time last session.

The purpose of the Bill is to tackle the escalating problem of childhood obesity and prevent other childhood health problems caused by food and drink.

The Bill seeks to regulate the marketing to children of unhealthy food and drink, and to introduce measures to promote healthy eating to children. The Bill also includes regulations requiring school meals to comply with nutritional benchmarks set by the Food Standards Agency and to prevent the sale of unhealthy food and drink from vending machines and tuck shops. It further requires that food education and related practical skills are included in the national curriculum up to the age of 16.

Figures recently revealed by Paul Burstow MP show that hospital treatment for obese children and teenagers has more than doubled since 1997. And further statistics uncovered by Paul Burstow have found that prescriptions of the obesity drug Orlistat have increased by over 300% in four years and 30% in the most recent year alone.

Paul Burstow commented:

"I welcome this Bill which is calling for action to be taken right way to halt the childhood obesity epidemic. It is vital to the health of the local community that we promote messages about healthy eating to young people, as well as important lifestyle measures such as taking the stairs rather than the lift.

The Government is failing local children, who are at risk of being plagued by serious health problems like diabetes for the rest of their lives, if they do not take urgent steps like those outlined in this Bill to tackle this growing problem."