Obesity Action Scotland 10th Anniversary Parliament Reception

Sponsoring MSP, Emma Harper opened the proceedings, welcoming guests to the reception. In her opening remarks, she outlined how Obesity Action Scotland was conceived by the Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties to offer leadership and independent advocacy on preventing and reducing overweight and obesity in Scotland and nested within the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 2015. Ms Harper further highlighted the significant and growing levels of childhood obesity in Scotland, and the persistent inequalities in accessing healthy food options.

Up next, Obesity Action Scotland Steering Group Chair, Dr Andrew Fraser, reflected on the organisation's journey over the last decade and the progress made so far in addressing obesity in Scotland. He reflected that in 2015, ten years ago, it was arguable that obesity was a front-rank public health problem in Scotland, but no one is arguing now – despite progress made, there is still a long way to go to reduce obesity levels in Scotland. He outlines how Obesity Action Scotland has been at the forefront of advocating for policy action to improve the food environment to deliver healthy weight for all over the last decade and that this will continue to remain a focus for the organisation as it moves into its second decade.

Jenni Minto MSP, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health delivered a Ministerial address. The Minister paid tribute to the work of the organisation in building evidence, bringing people’s voices to the table and providing meaningful contributions to the national obesity agenda over the last 10 years. The Minister further spoke of the Scottish Government’s continuing commitment to delivering actions outlined in the Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan. The Minister highlighted free school meals are at the heart of the Scottish Government’s mission to reduce child poverty, reaffirming their commitment to delivering universal free school meals to all pupils in primaries 1 to 5 alongside an expansion of provision for children in primaries 6 and 7 in receipt of Scottish Child Payment. Minister Minto indicated that the anticipated next steps regulating the promotion on High Fat Salt and Sugar food would be set out shortly.

The next speaker was Johanna Ralston, CEO of the World Obesity Federation, of which OAS is a member. Unfortunately, Johanna was not able to attend the reception in person but had offered a recorded video message. In her message, Johanna spoke about the increasing global prevalence of obesity, including rising levels in Scotland, and that regulatory action is needed to reverse this trajectory. She highlighted that Scotland now has the unique opportunity to lead the rest of the UK, Europe and the world in introducing a comprehensive regulation restricting price and location promotions of food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS).

Children were at the heart of the reception. Representing children, 10-year-old Jaxon expertly read a short story reflecting the positive food environment he and peers would like to see in Scotland and highlighting prospects for food growing in communities. He was followed by a video of a group of 10-year-olds from Canal View Primary School in Edinburgh. Obesity Action Scotland alongside Fast Forward had undertaken an activity with them in March to understand what children think about junk food advertising and what they would like to see in adverts for healthy food. The children clearly highlighted that the adverts for junk food they see are designed to make the products more attractive, use bright colours and cartoon imagery and do not tell the truth. During the activity, the children had the opportunity to draw their own healthy food adverts, and these were displayed on poster boards at the reception, which guests were invited to visit.

The formal proceedings of the reception were brought to a close by Dr Shoba John, Head of Obesity Action Scotland, who laid out the path ahead and the organisation’s direction of travel over the coming decade. Shoba highlighted the importance of partnership working, the need for a renewed and enhanced focus on addressing health inequalities in diet and weight outcomes and asking us all to consider what more we need to do to ensure a healthy food environment for our children. Dr John concluded by proposing a vote of thanks to all those who have been part of our journey and the guests at the reception.

Sponsoring MSP Emma Harper brought the meeting to a close and invited guests to network for the remainder of the reception.

The participants included senior representatives from the Scottish Government Diet and Weight Team, Scottish Food Commission, Food Standards Scotland, Public Health Scotland, University of Edinburgh, and the Good Food Nation Lab.

The support from our civil society coalition partners was palpable, including from the Scottish Obesity Alliance, Scottish Food Coalition, NCD Alliance Scotland, European Coalition of People Living with Obesity, showcasing their commitment to raising the profile of diet and weight concerns in the parliament. There was good representation from sub-national partners as well.

Team OAS and several teams within the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow contributed whole heartedly to bring this event home.