Sugary drinks duty

The Children’s Food Campaign has today published figures showing that the introduction of a 20p per litre duty on sugary drinks would benefit Londoners’ health, as well as save the NHS and public health budgets in London £39 million over twenty years.

Oral health campaigners the British Dental Health Foundation also believe the duty would help to reduce levels of tooth decay seen in children age 3-12, particularly as soft drinks are the largest single source of sugar for children aged 4-10 years and teenagers.

The research is published in association with University of Liverpool’s Brendan Collins and with FoodActive. It shows that if the UK government introduced a 20p per litre sugary drinks duty the impact in London over twenty years would be to:

The Children’s Food Campaign is calling for the government to introduce a 20p per litre sugary drinks duty to reduce sugar consumption.  The Campaign proposes that any revenue generated would be used to set up a Children’s Health Fund, paying for programmes to improve children’s health and protect the environment they grow up in.