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2.13 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. John Horam): The hon. Member for Halifax (Mrs. Mahon) has introduced a Bill that seeks to regulate the diet industry. I should first, like the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron), like to congratulate the hon. Lady on her persistence. I think that this is not merely the second time, but the third time--
Mrs. Mahon: Second time, Second Reading.
Mr. Horam: As the hon. Lady says, second time, Second Reading. She originally introduced the measure as a ten-minute Bill, so this is technically the third time that she has had a go. The Government congratulate her on her persistence, and they share many of her concerns. The question is: how do we deal with these legitimate concerns which, from time to time, have divided us?
For most people, deciding whether to diet is a matter of personal choice--a choice in which they probably will not want the Government to interfere. However, the fact is that sometimes being overweight is serious enough to put health at risk. In Britain and in other developed countries, the proportion of obese men and women is increasing. The health implications include raised plasma cholesterol levels and raised blood pressure. In other words, obesity increases the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke which, together, are Britain's biggest killers.
Being overweight and obesity are the result, in simple terms, of taking more energy from food and from drink than is used up--in physical activity, for instance. The solution is simple: eat less and be more active. The hon. Lady spelt that out in her speech, and she is entirely right. However, it is easier said than done. Many slimming diets help people to lose weight and have been successful--the problems start when they try to keep the weight off in the longer term.
I shall outline what the Government are doing on the subject, in reply to the concerns of the hon. Lady and of the hon. Member for Rother Valley. We have consulted widely with experts on how to encourage effective, long-term weight loss. The hon. Lady will be aware of a report that was published in October last year, entitled "Obesity--Reversing the Increasing Problems of Obesity
in England". We are considering future courses of action based on the report. For example, as a first step, we have commissioned a review of effective interventions, to identify what works to help people maintain a healthy weight in the long term.
We already have a major programme to promote healthy eating and to increase physical activity--the Eat Well programme is part of that. As part of the nutrition task force programme to achieve diet and nutrition targets, discussion set in train with the food industry on further reductions in fat and saturated fat content of foods will continue.
Hon. Members may have seen the new Active for Life campaign, to which the hon. Member for Rother Valley referred, which my noble Friend Baroness Cumberlege announced last week. During the last Health Question Time, I encouraged hon. Members to participate in the campaign and said that I was disappointed by the number of Members of Parliament who attend the Westminster gym and the Boothroyd studio. Nevertheless, one does not need to do that--one needs only a regular amount of modest exercise, which will do the trick. Exercise releases endorphins and stimulates people--it is of huge advantage to everyone.
All those things are a part of a structured programme to help with the problem. The hon. Lady and the hon. Gentleman raised the question of what we are doing about anorectic agents. The then Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, West (Mr. Sackville), announced in the equivalent debate last year that he was setting up a process to look into the matter. I inform hon. Members that that is going well and that an announcement will be made shortly. It has taken a long time, but as the hon. Lady will recognise, there has been a huge amount of public interest in the matter. The number of people who wanted to be consulted was greater than we expected, and she will understand that it is important to get it right.
The Bill applies to any person, other than a doctor, who gives advice on diet or on weight loss. That will be a restriction on many other professionals who are not doctors, but who may be qualified to advise. At the same time, medicine is a broad church and we cannot assume that every doctor is an expert in every field. Treating obese people appropriately requires specialist knowledge, and weight loss is only part of the management.
Mrs. Mahon:
I take the point that the Minister is making about the wider number of people who treat those who are deemed to be overweight. However, they have nothing to fear from the Bill. If they are not doing anything wrong--if they are just promoting healthy eating, calorie control and exercise--they have nothing to worry about. It is the diet industry--which is selling all the rubbish, selling poisons and promising medical cures--that the Bill intends to get at, not the genuine practitioner.
Mr. Horam:
I understand that, but I believe that it is better to promote higher standards of knowledge and good practice among all relevant professionals. That is one of the ways to proceed. That is why the Government's nutrition task force has developed a core curriculum for nutrition in education for health professionals. That is a central element in the way in which we should proceed, and that applies not only to doctors, but to nurses, pharmacists and so on, who often say that slimming devices should be used.
Mr. Michael Fabricant (Mid-Staffordshire):
Again I find myself opposing the hon. Member for Halifax (Mrs. Mahon). I opposed her when she spoke against Sunday trading, and in the end she had to--
Mrs. Mahon:
Sunday trading? No.
Mr. Fabricant:
The hon. Lady says that she did not oppose Sunday trading. I certainly opposed her, though, when this Bill was introduced as a ten-minute Bill, and I stand again to oppose her again. I shall be brief because I do not intend to talk out the Bill.
The Bill would introduce costly, and in my view cumbersome, new regulation to prevent 18 million adults from taking responsible steps to improve their own health.
I have not, this year or any other year, had an axe to grind on behalf of the slimming industry--indeed, the occupational health therapist told me that it was time I put on weight--and I certainly do not receive any moneys or have any such connection with the diet industry.
The trouble is that the hon. Member for Halifax keeps getting confused about what the problem is. She is convinced that the British public are surrounded by a conspiracy--in fact, I believe she used the word "conspiracy" today--of unscrupulous people who are trying to con them out of their hard-earned cash by persuading them that they are fat when they are not.
The hon. Lady's Bill, however well intentioned, is doomed to failure for three reasons. First, it will do nothing to curb the activities of the unscrupulous people who cash in on overweight people by selling ineffective or dangerous products, because it lacks the necessary sanctions to do so. Secondly, the only businesses on which it is likely to have an impact are the reputable organisations on which the medical profession increasingly relies to provide safe, effective, long-term solutions to the problem of weight control. Thirdly, this cumbersome legislation will only heap greater burdens on the national health service, especially hard-pressed general practitioners.
Yes, there are unscrupulous people cashing in on overweight people and they need to be stopped, but the hon. Lady's Bill will not do anything to stop them. I shall explain why later.
In any event, that is not the real problem. The problem is that nearly half the adults in this country are overweight. One person in seven--nearly 6 million people--is so fat that his health is in danger. The problem is getting worse, not better. Throughout the 1980s, the number of women suffering from clinical obesity shot up by 50 per cent. That is clinical obesity--not fashion.
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