Whitehall sources say there is “a question mark” over how the Prime Minister can overcome a series of legal and parliamentary procedural hurdles to ditching the soft drinks levy. It is unclear what mechanism Truss could use to scrap the sugar tax, which was introduced in 2018 as a result of its inclusion in the Finance Act 2017. She is a staunch critic of government intervention to promote healthier lifestyles and has previously said that “taxes on treats hit those on the lowest incomes” and that the government should not be telling people what to eat. Officials have made Mr Truss and Thérèse Coffey, the health secretary, aware of the challenges of scrapping the levy, which has won widespread support from MPs. The Guardian revealed last week that the government was undertaking an unpublished review of England’s obesity strategy, which was expected to lead to the withdrawal of policies such as banning junk food adverts on TV before 9pm. Senior doctors and health campaigners expressed deep dismay at the plan. Senior officials at the government’s Office for Health Improvement and Inequalities (OHID), effectively the public health arm of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), are horrified at the planned fire of restrictions. There is some question that Truss is ready to ditch the sugar tax. It raises £300m a year for the Treasury and has led to up to a 30% reduction in the sugar content of many soft drinks, which have been linked to tooth decay, obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The year after the levy came into effect led to a 10% reduction in the amount of sugar consumed by households through soft drinks, according to research funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) last year. The authors described it as a “win-win” for public health and for soft drink manufacturers, most of whom have adjusted their product formulations to avoid being hit with the SDIL for including too much sugar. “There are few policies that are good for business, good for health and good for government. The soft drink industry’s contribution is one of them,” said Katherine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, a group of 50 health and medical charities. The £300m it generates has paid for breakfast programmes, sports and equipment to promote physical activity in schools, especially in poor areas. Jenner said: “Abolishing the levy would mean those on lower incomes would have to pay more to access schemes like this in a cost of living crisis. It’s stupid.” The British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT) warned ministers that “it is dangerous ground to move from an inadequate strategy to no strategy”. He said the plan to abandon the anti-obesity regime showed that “public health is being put at risk to appease industry interests, taking the easier, less responsible option rather than addressing the underlying causes of hunger and poverty experienced across the board.” country”. Satu Jackson, its chief executive, said obesity already costs the UK around £58bn a year in NHS costs and lost productivity. He added: “Junk food does nothing to reduce hunger in households struggling to put food on the table. In fact, research shows that highly processed foods impair appetite control and make people feel hungrier, exacerbating the problem and ultimately leading people to spend more money they don’t have on food, or worse, don’t have ». Dr Dolly Theis, an obesity policy expert at the MRC’s epidemiology unit and center for nutrition and activity research at the University of Cambridge, said removing the sugar tax risked leaving the NHS to treat even more patients with conditions linked to poor health. diet. “Independent evaluations have shown that SDIL has not only improved people’s health, provided more healthy product choices for consumers and helped fund food programs for the most deprived children, but has also helped businesses by increasing sales more healthy products,” he said. “If the government is serious about helping people at a time when healthy eating is out of reach for so many families and diet-related ill-health is crippling the NHS, then it would not be carrying out its rumored plans.” The DHSC has been approached for a response. He described the Treasury-commissioned obesity review as “an internal summary of obesity policy”. Ministry ministers believe it is right to monitor the impact of restrictions on the promotion of foods high in fat, salt and sugar as families struggle to cope with rising inflation.
