Ban fizzy drinks in school says Hunt

[David Guyatt]

Quite right too.

Can we also ban Murdoch's mate Jeremy Hunt from a ministerial post please?

Councils should look at banning fizzy drinks in schools, says Health Secretary

Local councils should look at banning fizzy drinks in schools and other "nannying" policies after new figures revealed there are almost 30,000 preventable deaths a year, Jeremy Hunt has said.

Councils should look at banning school drinks machines, says Health Secretary Photo: ALAMY









By Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent

9:04AM BST 11 Jun 2013

111 Comments


The Health Secretary said local councils must act to stop a "shocking" postcode lottery in health, which means people are much more likely to die young in some areas than others.

Mr Hunt said almost 30,000 lives could be saved if Britain had the same record as Switzerland on tackling the causes of early death, which include obesity, smoking and alcohol.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, he said the Government would fully support local councils that bring in tough new health measures that some critics have branded too "nannying".

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The Coalition has retreated from issues such as minimum alcohol pricing and plain cigarette packaging, but local councils took over responsibility for public health problems earlier this year.

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Mr Hunt said: "There are things we can do at a national level, such as restricting point-of-sale displays of tobacco, and we are proceeding with those kinds of things too. It's a partnership.
"[Banning school drinks machines] are the things which I think local authorities should look at, and what I really want today's figures to do is to help them learn from each other."
Mr Hunt spoke out as his deparment launched a new website naming the councils with the highest premature mortality rates.
The website, launched by Public Health England, ranks each council area in England according to its total rate of deaths among under-75s, with separate tables provided for cancer and diseases of the heart, liver and lungs.
It exposes a postcode lottery of mortality rates across the country with more than twice as many premature deaths in Manchester, the lowest-ranked area, as in top-placed Wokingham.
There is also a two-fold difference in cancer deaths between the best and worst areas, a three-fold gap in heart attack and stroke, and a four-fold variation for lung and liver disease.
Warrington, Bedford, Stockport, Northamptonshire and Thurrock all have worse than average rates of premature mortality despite having comparably low levels of deprivation.
The website, longerlives.phe.org.uk, reveals that Wokingham has the lowest premature mortality rate of 200 per 100,000 people, while Manchester has the worst with 455 deaths per 100,000.