HL Deb 17 March 2005 vol 670 cc32-4WS
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health (Miss Johnson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

The Government's Public Health White Paper Choosing Health: making healthier choices easier, launched in November 2004, set out commonsense steps to prevent unnecessary deaths and help people to make healthier choices.

The delivery plan for choosing health, published today, explains how government will put these plans into practice. It includes 45 "big wins" which the evidence suggests will make the greatest impact on health. It also covers policies and programmes which will be developed and implemented, targets to improve health, partnerships between industry, the voluntary sector and professional groups, and services delivered by local authorities and the NHS.

Delivering Choosing Health is backed up by two action plans: Choosing a Better Diet: a food and health action plan; and Choosing Activity: a physical activity action plan also published today.

Choosing a Better Diet: a food and health action plan, brings together, in one place, all the White Paper commitments relating to food and nutrition as well as further activity across government. This includes action to improve information to enable healthier eating, restrict further the advertising and promotion of foods to children, increase access to healthier food, simplified food labelling, and improve school food.

Choosing Activity: a physical activity action plan sets out, for the first time, co-ordinated cross-government action on promoting physical activity and sport. It highlights the leadership role of the NHS and the importance of close partnership working across sectors, particularly with local authorities, to bring about positive change in activity levels across the whole population. The plan outlines a national framework to complement and support work at a regional and local level. It details an extensive range of departmental commitments such as action to promote active travel through increased walking and cycling, work to improve the physical environment of communities to encourage more active living, and programmes to increase participation in sport and leisure activities.

Copies have been placed in the Library.