Tackling obesity: improving policy making on food and health

Institute for Government - 
This report finds that every government since 1992 has missed targets to reduce obesity – with the UK’s rising obesity rates harming people’s health and life opportunities, burdening the NHS and damaging the economy. It tries to identify the reasons behind these policy failures and sets out how to make progress. It finds that tackling obesity has suffered from ministers fearing the perception of nanny statism, despite there being public support for ambitious measures. It details how, over three decades, there have been at least 14 strategies, hundreds of policies, and a succession of institutional reforms, with key agencies and teams created and then abolished.

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