The Chief Medical Officer’s latest annual report was recently published.

Our response to it is as follows:

• It is encouraging to see a focus on the economic case for investment in child health which was a focus of the advocacy volume published in October. We know long term investment and employing preventative measures from a young age are key factors in improving health and wellbeing in later age.
• The Chief Medical Officer’s concerns regarding the normalisation of drinking alcohol echo our comments on the marketing of e-cigarettes as fashion accessories. Alcohol and tobacco are harmful substances and marketing often reaches children and young people who are at an impressionable age. We fully support her position surrounding the marketing of alcohol and the need for Government, retailers and manufacturers to take responsibility.
• We welcome the discussion of a sugar tax. The population is facing an obesity epidemic and softer ‘nudge’ approaches have not been successful in curbing obesity rates. We have had huge successes following the introduction of taxation on tobacco and legislation surrounding seat belt use, and we support the view there is increasing need for legislative action.
• There is a need to increase awareness and education with regard to nutritional advice, in particular added sugar. We need to ensure the public are provided with clarity of the often mixed and confusing messages. However this awareness needs to be matched with Governmental responsibility.
• We fully agree that employers need to play their part in the prevention and protection of the health and wellbeing of their employers. Providing facilities to encourage healthy behaviours is one step towards this. We would also push for the inclusion of the role of healthy conversations and workplace health champions.
• Active travel can have huge benefits to health, however we welcome the focus on improving infrastructure especially in town planning.
• We are pleased to see an emphasis on the importance of research and evidence based public health interventions and actions.
• It is a shame that there is little emphasis on population health as a whole, with little reference to community health or health prevention.