The government's obesity policy group is axed following a row with Lansley

16 Nov 2011
Diane Abbott, Labour’s Shadow Public Health Minister, blasts Andrew Lansley over the news that the Department of Health’s own obesity advisory group has quit in despair over the government’s obesity policies:

‘Families, schools and health groups will be looking at this and will be deeply concerned. It is becoming clear that Andrew Lansley’s number one priority is pleasing his friends in big business. The message from Labour, the Tory-led Public Health Committee, campaigners like Jamie Oliver and now the government’s own obesity policy panel is clear: the government’s approach is completely inadequate and totally unacceptable.

‘Responsibility deals” just camouflage the fact the government is refusing to take action on issues like trans-fats and binge-drinking. The truth is that many of the targets Andrew Lansley tries to take credit for were put in place, prior to the 2010 election, by the Food Standards Agency. Once in office, the government removed key food regulatory functions from the FSA and launched ‘responsibility deals’. It’s really disingenuous.

‘Andrew Lansley is like the Captain of the Titanic, steering the country towards a public health crisis, with his blind faith in big business, despite all the warnings. People our queuing up to condemn the government’s approach, even their own policy advisory group. We have the fattest ever generation of children and Andrew Lansley has absolutely nothing to say about it.

‘We need a national movement to tackle these problems, with proper and straight forward leadership from the government.’

--ENDS—

1) The cross-government Expert Advisory Group on Obesity in England was launched in 2007.
2) In May 2009 the Food Standards Agency published revised salt reduction targets for 2012, for 80 categories of foods. These were more challenging than the previous targets for 2010:http://www.food.gov.uk/scotland/scotnut/salt/saltreduction The government has since transferred these targets to ‘responsibility deals’ and claimed credit for them.
3) Anne Milton unable to list any progress on obesity: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-11-14a.79755.h&s=speaker%3A10001#g79755.q0
4) Criticism from the Tory-led public health Committee: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/02/mps-deride-lansley-food-and-drink-firms
5) Jamie Oliver brands Andrew Lansley obesity plan as 'patronising rubbish': http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/13/uk-five-billion-calories-obesity?newsfeed=true
6) Jamie Oliver fears government is undoing school meal progress : http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/24/jamie-oliver-school-meals-progress-undone
7) Key health firms refusing to sign up to responsibility deals: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/mar/15/lansley-health-strategy-flounders-refuse

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