14 Promotion of healthy diets and physical
exercise
| (27111)
15700/05
COM(05) 637
| Green Paper: Promoting healthy diets and physical exercise: a European dimension for the prevention of overweight, obesity and chronic diseases
|
| Legal base | — |
| Department | Health |
| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 27 February 2006
|
| Previous Committee Report | HC 34-xv (20005-06), para 7 (18 January 2006)
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Previous scrutiny
14.1 We considered this Green Paper in January and decided to
keep it under scrutiny until we had received some further information
from the Government.[42]
14.2 The Green Paper outlines the links between,
on the one hand, poor diet, lack of physical exercise and obesity
and, on the other hand, the incidence of serious illness, substantial
public expenditure on health care and lost economic production.
It suggests that preventing excessive weight calls for action
cutting across Community policies on agriculture, fisheries, education,
sport, consumer protection, research, the environment and others.
14.3 The Commission invited view by 15 March 2006
on a wide range of questions, such as:
"What are the concrete contributions which
Community policies, if any, should make towards the promotion
of healthy diets and physical activity, and towards creating environments
which make healthy choices easy choices?"[43]
14.4 We asked the Government two questions. It has
now replied.
The Minister's letter of 27 February
14.5 We summarise below our questions (in italics)
and the replies we have received from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State for Public Health at the Department of Health (Caroline
Flint).
In view of the substantial overlap between the
issues discussed in the Green Paper and the policies the Government
and the devolved administrations are pursuing, would action by
the Community on many of the matters covered in the Green Paper
be consistent with the principle of subsidiarity?
14.6 The Minister tells us that she does not expect
the Green Paper to lead to more EC legislation "unless absolutely
necessary". The Government considers that most of the issues
covered in the Green Paper are best tackled nationally. She adds,
however, that:
"it is important to the UK that our non-regulatory
initiatives are taken up elsewhere in the EU. For example, we
have made great progress on reducing salt in processed foods but
the effects of this are diluted somewhat if our EU partners do
not adopt similar policies."
In view of the involvement of the World Health
Organisation in promoting international co-operation on diet,
physical activity and health, what value would be added by EC
intervention?
14.7 The Minister tells us that the WHO has an important
role at a global level, identifying key issues and indicating
possible courses of action. It is consistent with WHO's role for
action to be taken by individual Member States and for the European
Commission "with its public health competency to seek to
galvanise action across the EU aimed at tackling obesity and other
diet and lifestyle related diseases".
Conclusion
14.8 We are grateful for the Minister's replies.
We remain concerned that some of the action the Commission appears
to contemplate would be inconsistent with the principle of subsidiarity.
This will be much in our minds when we scrutinise any proposal
for Community action which emerge from the Commission's consideration
of the responses to the Green Paper.
14.9 We have no further questions to put to the
Minister at this stage and we have decided to clear the document
from scrutiny.
42 See headnote. Back
43
Green Paper, page 6, paragraph IV.3.2. Back
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