§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the effect of obesity on life expectancy; and what research his Department has commissioned into projected levels of life expectancy of the population of the UK in this century. [152181]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe National Audit Office report, Tackling Obesity in England, published in 2001, found that deaths linked to obesity shortened life by an average of nine years.
The Government Actuary's Department report, published in December 2003, projected the average life expectancy at birth would increase from 75.9 years in 2002 to 81.0 in 2031 for men and from 80.5 years to 84.9 years for women over the same period.