David Tredinnick MP, speaking in the Debate on the Address this week, raised a number of health related issues, including the need to focus more on prevention and tackle obesity. 

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David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con): To build on the point made by the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), is not a critical aspect—something that the Health Committee has looked at—what doctors are learning now? More needs to be done about prevention. Has my right hon. Friend seen early-day motion 1 about reducing levels of obesity, and is not reducing the amount of sugar in fizzy drinks a key challenge for him?

The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The big change we need to see in the NHS over this Parliament is a move from a focus on cure to a focus on prevention. In this Parliament, we will probably see the biggest single public health challenge change from smoking to obesity. It is still a national scandal that one in five 11-year-olds is clinically obese, and I think we need to do something significant to tackle that in this Parliament.

Following the debate David Tredinnick added “I am pleased that the Government is taking this issue seriously. If we are to tackle the ongoing funding challenges of the NHS we need to address the increasing prevalence of long-term conditions and focus more on prevention rather than cure.”