A Bill to promote a healthy lifestyle by reducing obesity – moved by Opposition MPs Robert Cutajar and Mario de Marco – would make it obligatory for every student to attend a compulsory number of hours of physical activity.
Introducing the Private Member’s Bill, Mr Cutajar said there would also be a list of foods and drinks which could be sold from school canteens as well as regulation on the food that could be sold near schools, at what time and at what distance.
He said €22 million a year was spent on the health sector as a direct result of conditions brought on by obesity. The aim was to reduce the obesity rate by five per cent by 2020 and to save €3 million a year.
The aim is to reduce obesity by five per cent and save €3 million
The Bill provides for an inter-ministerial consultative committee, chaired by a representative of the Office of the Prime Minister, to ensure that proposals would be implemented.
Mr Cutajar stressed every licensed school should have a number of PE teachers. He also pointed out that in some schools more than a third of the students stayed home on Sports Day.
This needed to change, and every student should be obliged to participate. Children who attended private schools tended to be less obese, according to a study, and this could be because there was more discipline in the time allocated for sports and PE.
Mr Cutajar said that this Bill required only determination and goodwill for it to succeed.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne said the government believed in tackling the obesity problem, as this affected individuals, health services, society and the economy. He outlined a number of health problems caused by obesity and some of the initiatives the government was taking in this area. These included the National Research Programme and a National Food Consumption survey.
A study to look into genetic links between obesity and problems such as smoking was due to start next week.
A Nutrition Policy and Action Plan would be launched in December and the government was soon to issue a breast-feeding policy as well as a consultation process on a national policy on diabetes in the coming days.
The government had issued clear regulations specifying what school tuck-shops could sell and they would be visited by health inspectors.
Dr Fearne said the Bill should not include healthy lifestyle in general but should focus on obesity.
Although the government agreed in principle with the setting up of a consultative council, giving it the function to advise the minister was too open. Existing legislation already provided for the possibility of setting up such a council with the same functions.
The council established by the present Bill should give advice to the minister on obesity-related problems and its chairman should be appointed directly by the Prime Minister.