In September 2022 The Guardian received exclusive information that prime minister, Liz Truss, might be planning to abolish the anti-obesity legislation. But backlash from health experts is impeding any progress.
Whitehall sources told The Guardian there is a “a question mark” on how Liz might overcome a number of legal and parliamentary procedural obstacles preventing her from abandoning the soft drinks industry levy.
According to The Guardian "Officials have made Truss and Thérèse Coffey, the health secretary, aware of the challenges involved in ditching the levy." But whether they will continue to move ahead with the plan is unclear.
Within other government departments there seems to be discontent around the plan. The Guardian reports, “Senior officials in the government’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), in effect the public health section of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), are appalled at the planned bonfire of restrictions.”
The department that should really be worried is the Treasury. The sugar tax raises £300 million a year which pays for breakfast programmes, sport and equipment to promote physical activity in schools. If the tax is pulled ministers will have to act quickly to fill the void.
Most manufacturers have adjusted their products to avoid the tax. According to Medical Research Council (MRC) research this has resulted in a 10 per cent fall in the amount of sugar households consumed through soft drinks in the year after the levy came into effect. The MRC called it a “win-win” for public health and the soft drinks manufacturers.
The British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine warned ministers that “it is dangerous territory to move from having an inadequate strategy to no strategy at all”.
Dr Dolly Theis, specializes in population health interventions and obesity research, said “Independent evaluations have shown that the soft drinks industry levy has not only improved people’s health, provided more healthy product options for consumers and helped fund food provision programmes for the most deprived children, but it has also helped businesses too by resulting in an increase in the sale of healthier products.
“If the government is serious about helping people at a time when healthy food is out of reach for so many families and diet related ill-health is crippling the NHS, then it would not go through with its rumoured plans.”