Our response to Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee call for views on health inequalities in Scotland - March 2022

The Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee are holding an inquiry into health inequalities in Scotland. 

The aim of this inquiry is to explore progress towards tackling health inequalities in Scotland since 2015. It will explore any cross-sectoral work undertaken over that time period to address social inequalities and what impact this has had on health inequalities. The single most significant event to have affected individuals since 2015 has been the global COVID-19 pandemic. This inquiry will explore what impacts the pandemic has had on health inequalities and action to address them, both positive and negative

In our response, we outline how health inequalities are continuing to rise in Scotland, and how pre-existing inequalities were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically for overweight and obesity, there is a clear pattern of deprivation with the most deprived a lot more likely to have overweight or obesity than their least deprived counterparts, for both adults and children. To tackle health inequalities, we outline that population-level public health interventions are required which focus on changing the food environment and addressing structural causes of overweight and obesity, and inequality. This includes action on the price, availability and marketing of unhealthy food. 

The forthcoming Public Health Bill presents an opportunity to take action in each of these areas to tackle health inequalities. Specific actions we would like to see prioritised include:

• Restrictions on all types of in-premises and online retail promotion of HFSS products including price and non-price promotions, and incentivising businesses to increase the amount of healthy food on promotion
• Consider mandatory and standardised front of pack nutrition and calorie labelling on all HFSS products, clearly denoting the calories and fat, sugar and salt content per portion if this is not taken forward at UK level or requires legislation to enable a UK wide approach
• Action to tackle advertising of HFSS foods in the areas that are within devolved powers, including mandatory national health-protecting outdoor advertising policy that covers outdoor advertising spaces and advertising on transport networks

The call for views closes on 31st March 2022.