NUMBERS OF OBESE CHILDREN A STARK WAKE UP CALL - LAMB

9.47.42am GMT Tue 4th Mar 2008

Responding to figures released today which show that nearly one in four children in England aged four to five and almost a third of 10 to 11-year-olds are obese or overweight, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb said:

"It is a stark wake up call when we see that over a quarter of our children are overweight before they even start secondary school.

"Worryingly, the scale of the problem may be worse than these figures suggest as the fear of being bullied as 'fat' may mean that some of the heaviest children could be in the 20% of children who weren't weighed.

"It's clear that not enough is being done at the most critical age. Action needs to be taken before children even start school, yet information about healthy living is not getting through to new parents as health visitor numbers decline and school nurses are overstretched.

Notes

1. The results of the National Child Measurement Programme were released today:

<http://www.ic.nhs.uk/our-services/improving-patient-care/national-child-measurement-programme>

2. The programme weighed and measured children in reception (aged 4 to 5 years) and year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years) to assess overweight and obese levels. In 2006/2007, 876,416 primary school children were measured (80 per cent of those eligible).

3. The results are available by Primary Care Trust, Local Authority and Strategic Health Authority