The committee's verdict

A cross-party group of MPs has delivered a blunt assessment of the government's obesity strategy, concluding that the current approach is unlikely to deliver meaningful change. The Health and Social Care Committee examined the promise, set out in the 10-year health plan for England, to reverse rising obesity levels over the next decade. Its report finds no sign that the ambition described as a “moonshot” is on track to achieve anything significant.

The committee's concern centres on a lack of basic foundations more than a year after the promise was made. Members said it was still unclear how progress would be measured and how different government departments would work together on a single plan. Without those answers, the report argues, the headline pledge risks remaining an aspiration rather than a programme of action.

What MPs want instead

The report calls for leadership from the very top of government, with a dedicated cabinet committee chaired by the prime minister. That structure, the committee argues, would signal that obesity is treated as a government-wide priority rather than a health-department issue alone. It also wants a single cross-government action plan covering prevention and treatment for both adults and children.

That plan should spell out which departments are responsible, what each will do, and how the work will be funded, according to the committee. Ministers are asked to come to Parliament within the next three months to set out the new approach. Committee chair Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat MP, said leadership from No 10 was vital to making the plan credible.

The scale of the problem

Official statistics cited in the reporting put the scale of the challenge in stark terms: 30% of adults in England are living with obesity, while 66% are either overweight or living with obesity. The committee also pointed to the need to stand up to parts of the food industry on issues including advertising, labelling and supermarket sales targets.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson responded that obesity is one of the biggest challenges facing the health service. The department said the government is taking bold action to drive a shift from sickness to prevention and to give every child the best start in life. That response does not, on the evidence in the report, answer the committee's central complaint about measurement and cross-departmental planning.

Sources: UK Parliament