Health secretary Andrew Lansley has dismayed the trade with his change of approach on the Change4Life campaign and continuing uncertainty over the future of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme and 5 A DAY campaign.
A draft structural reform plan unveiled by his department this week outlined that FSA nutrition functions would be subsumed into the department of health while no mention is made of the agency’s other functions.
A spokesman for the DoH said: “A white paper on public health will be published later in the year and there is a review going on of the arms-length bodies for health that should be published soon.” These documents are expected to detail the future of the FSA, 5 A DAY and the school scheme.
At a speech to the UK Faculty of Public Health last week Lansley outlined government’s “new approach to public health” which hints at swingeing cuts. Although he praised the achievement of healthy eating and exercise campaign Change4Life, he said it had to change. “We have to make Change4Life less a government campaign, more a social movement…We will be progressively scaling back the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on Change4Life and asking others, including the charities, the commercial sector and local authorities to fill the gap.”
One incensed charity leader said; “It's like asking the tobacco manufacturers to run No Smoking Day.” And Fresh Produce Consortium ceo Nigel Jenney described the situation as “concerning” saying he had written to the minister some two weeks ago asking for clarification of the future of the School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme and is still awaiting a response.