My Lords, today we have had a very extensive and impassioned debate, and we have heard in your Lordships’ House challenge and counter-challenge. I will seek to pick up the main broad points that we have heard about. What we cannot turn away from is the fact that two in five children in England are above a healthy weight when they leave primary school, while last year saw the fastest increase in childhood obesity on record.
Children with obesity are five times more likely to become adults with obesity, increasing the risk of developing conditions including type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart and liver disease. As we heard from the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, the incidence of this is not equally spread. As we observe from the levelling-up White Paper, there is a huge need to tackle poor diet and obesity in order to reduce health inequalities and the damage that obesity causes, both in childhood and adulthood.
I welcome the provisions in the Bill that help people to make informed choices about what they eat and drink, but this should not be misunderstood. Choice can only really be choice if there is no distortion, and if those making the choices have the information they need. They need to be able to make decisions and be supported in doing that. When I look at the Government’s analysis, which suggests that a watershed on TV and online that introduced restrictions to prohibit advertisements for products high in fat, sugar or salt being shown before 9 pm could lead to 20,000 fewer obese children, I think that this is something that should not be dismissed. This is about not only the direct outcome but shifting the environment, so that we can manage the challenges we all face in supporting good health.
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Government Amendments 249 and 252 would allow the Secretary of State to delay the implementation of these restrictions beyond their planned date of 1 January 2023, as a number of noble Lords have already said. I understand the intention of these amendments and appreciate the need to ensure that technical guidance is complete ahead of implementation, but the Minister will have heard concerns that this could lead to unnecessary delay. Can the Minister give an assurance on this point and perhaps indicate the circumstances
in which a delay might be envisaged? Furthermore, in light of the suggestion we read in the Times and other media that the Prime Minister may be prepared to drop plans to tighten regulations on the promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks, I hope the Minister can assure your Lordships’ Committee that this will not happen.
In contrast, there are a number of amendments tabled by noble Lords seeking—in my opinion and that of other noble Lords—to weaken, dilute and delay these important steps by changing the implementation of different parts of the restrictions. The noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, some time ago set out a clear analysis of what these amendments would mean, so I will not repeat those points. I listened closely to the noble Lords supporting these amendments, including the noble Lord, Lord Grade. I certainly accept the point made by the food and drink industry, and that the need for reformulation is key. But as the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, said, tackling obesity involves many responses; it is not an “either/or” but an “as well as”.
The amendments seeking to change the Government’s course are opposed by the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of over 45 health organisations, including the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research, Diabetes UK, the British Medical Association and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. They all remind us that there is an urgent need for action. As we heard from the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, and others, these measures have been trailed for long enough to allow companies, many of which have healthy alternatives available to advertise, to adapt their marketing strategies.
It is also important that we listen to young people themselves. A new report by Cancer Research UK on young people’s attitudes to marketing restrictions on foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt shows that they broadly support marketing restrictions and seek an environment in which they can make proper decisions, because they know the impact on their and others’ health.
The noble Viscount, Lord Colville, and the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, made important points about the need to tackle the influence and prevalence of advertisements on online platforms, because children and adults get their information and influences from a range of different places. It is important that we respond to that. I hope the Minister will consider the valid points in that regard.
Importantly, the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and other noble Lords raised the issue of physical activity and sport, and the need to change a pattern of inactivity in this country. I hope the Minister will consider proposals, which do have merit, to involve activity—I emphasise activity, and not just sport—more closely in the prevention of ill health, both physical and mental, and to see how efforts to tackle obesity could be better organised through those means.
I hope the Government will press on and will not be diverted from measures that will have an impact on the health and weight of the nation. We should have particular regard to children and give them the greatest opportunities.