6. Will the Minister provide an update on Welsh Government progress to reduce childhood obesity rates? OAQ(5)0063(HWS)

Although latest figures suggest that obesity levels among children in Wales are stable, rates are still unacceptably high. Our programme for government makes a clear commitment to tackling obesity, working across Government and with schools to promote and increase healthier lifestyle choices.

Publication of the UK Government’s action plan for tackling childhood obesity met with criticism from campaigners due to the watering down of many of the expected proposals, especially those around sugar and on the advertising of unhealthy foods. In the Cwm Taf Local Health Board area, which includes my constituency, 28.1 per cent of four- to five-year-olds, the second highest in Wales, are overweight or obese, and there is a pressing need to take action. Will the Minister make representations to the UK Government that the proposals contained in their action plan are inadequate and need urgent revisiting to give children in my constituency and across Wales the protection they need?

Well, the Welsh Government joined many others in expressing some disappointment at the lack of ambition in the UK Government’s childhood obesity strategy. There are a number of areas in which the Welsh Government has consistently urged the Secretary of State for Health to deliver stronger action at a UK level, and that includes tougher action on sugar, for example, and particularly on the advertising of unhealthy foods to children. The Cabinet Secretary and I have jointly written to the Secretary of State for Health on this precise matter, expressing our disappointment and pressing the case for tougher action as well. But, in the meantime, we do continue to use all of the levers that we have here in Wales, for example, to support our food industry centres to help reformulate their products to reduce sugar, salt and fat, and we continue to work to ensure that children have a healthier start in life, for example, through our 10 Steps to a Healthy Weight programme, our Healthy Child Wales programme and the network of healthy schools initiative, which 99 per cent of schools in Wales are taking part in.