Sugar tax report slammed as health lobby ‘PR stunt’

The Commons health committee’s report published today (November 30) called for a 20% tax on sugary drinks, labels showing sugar content in teaspoons and tough controls on price promotions and advertising.

Food and drink industry representatives have hit back at the Childhood obesity—brave and bold action report, arguing that the MPs demonstrated a “worrying lack of understanding”.

British Soft Drinks Association director general Gavin Partington criticised the basis of the report, which came out of the health committee’s inquiry held last month.

‘PR campaign by health lobby’

“This was not an inquiry in the conventional meaning of the word. It was part of the PR campaign by the health lobby to persuade ministers to introduce a tax on soft drinks,” he said.

“By its own admission the health select committee is merely proposing this tax because it’s easy to do yet there is no evidence worldwide that such a tax has an effect on obesity.”  

Food and Drink Federation director general Ian Wright argued that MPs came into the inquiry with a clear agenda and only heard evidence that supported their preconceptions.

“The committee has swallowed whole the agenda of the pressure group Action on Sugar,” he said. “Their report also simply endorses and reproduces at great length the recommendations already made by Public Health England [PHE].”

Wright said labelling showing sugar content in teaspoons would be illegal and a sugar tax would penalise consumers who already pay VAT.  

‘Worrying lack of understanding’

“The fact that the report calls on manufacturers voluntarily to label ‘added sugars’ in products, in the form of a teaspoon graphic, when to do so would be illegal, is characteristic of a worrying lack of understanding,” he said.  

“As a result of the arbitrary new tax recommended by the committee – which, if introduced, would inevitably be increased year-on-year and extended to other foods – would leave consumers paying significantly more, every week, for the products they love.” 

The report described the sugar tax as an essential part of measures needed to tackle childhood obesity and called for “bold and urgent” action in a government strategy to be unveiled next year.

“The scale and consequences of childhood obesity demand bold and urgent action from government,” it said. “We believe that if the government fails to act, the problem will become far worse.”

Health committee chairman Dr Sarah Wollaston has defended the recommendation for a tax on sugary drinks on her blog. 

‘Harm caused by these products’

“We do not believe that this is an attack on low-income families as industry lobbyists will no doubt claim, but rather an essential part of trying to reverse the harm caused by these products,” she said. 

“That harm is not confined to obesity; we know for example that dental decay is the commonest reason for hospital admission in children between the ages of five and nine.”

Action on Sugar (AoS) nutritionist Jennifer Rosborough told FoodManufacture.co.uk:“The publication of today’s independent report by the Health Select Committee into childhood obesity was not directly influenced by our campaigning as suggested by the predictable comments made by both Gavin Partington and Ian Wright.

“What is interesting is that the HSC [Health Select Committee] is in alignment with our ‘Cameron’s Obesity Plan’ launched today which includes a proposed 20% duty on all sugar sweetened soft drinks and confectionery – a tax that has already been successfully introduced in Mexico and, as a result, reduced consumption by 12%.

“This is by no means a PR stunt but an urgent call to action to the government to prevent the UK’s obesity and type 2 diabetes crisis from spiralling out of control. We must now all work together to pressure the government into taking ‘bold and urgent action’.”

Meanwhile, read why two-thirds of British adults would say no thanks to a sugar tax, while the AoS has set out a six-point plan to tackle obesity.