News

Rob Flello, MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, is to become the acting chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Adult and Childhood Obesity, taking over from Rosie Cooper MP following her work to establish the Parliamentary group, which was recently renamed to acknowledge a focus on obesity affecting both children and adults.

Flello said: “I am delighted to become the new acting chair of the APPG on Adult and Childhood Obesity. I would like to pay tribute to Rosie for working so hard to set up the group and very much look forward to continuing Rosie’s valuable work.

“We hope that this will result in substantive and practical action in the fight against obesity affecting both children and adults.”

A quarter of adults in the UK – 26% of both men and women aged 16 or over – are classified as obese according to figures from 2011.

For children attending reception class (aged 4-5 years) during 2011-12, just under 10% were obese. The group works to co-ordinate parliamentarians, representatives from industry, clinicians and charities to push forward practical and simple steps that could be taken to tackle obesity.

Flello added that the APPG on Adult and Childhood Obesity would also work to raise awareness of the problem and its implications, including the potentially vast costs that treating obesity and related conditions will impose on the taxpayer and the NHS, and aims to act as a central resource for obesity-related information, debate and expertise.

The APPG plans to take a leading role in promoting National Obesity Awareness Week, which will run from January 13-19 2014.