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Public Health (England)

Labour MPs had a free vote. Indeed, the hon. Gentleman and other Opposition Members put their names to an amendment that I tabled against the Government motion. There were free votes all round, and a sensible decision came from that. Hopefully, we will see a more responsible attitude here on 1 July than we are seeing from legislators in the European Parliament. I welcome the opportunity to debate the events that have moved us on from the ““Choosing Health”” White Paper. Irrespective of what is said about which Government have been good or bad over the years in public health terms, such a White Paper has not been introduced by any Government before, and it took a while for this Government to do it. I want to consider some of the major issues. It is not so much a case of how far we have come, but what public health challenges all of us face in the 21st century. The basis of the White Paper is that in 2004 one in five people were obese, and as a result, in less than 20 years there is likely to be a 5 per cent. rise in strokes, an 18 per cent. rise in heart attacks and a 54 per cent. rise in type 2 diabetes. It is hardly surprising that the World Health Organisation estimates that if we could eliminate the major risk factors—smoking, obesity and physical inactivity—the great majority of cases of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes would be prevented. Worldwide, that would be an extraordinary achievement and one of the biggest moves we could ever make towards improving the health not just of the British public, but of the public throughout the world. We all have to recognise that the threats to public health in this century are different from those in centuries past. Public health is no longer about clean drinking water, better housing and better sanitation, but about individual lifestyles and habits. It is not easy to deal with those. We cannot increase physical activity simply by building new infrastructure, welcome as that is. Two major sports and swimming centres are being built in the next few years in my constituency, and they will be a landmark in terms of giving people the opportunity to take part in physical activity. We cannot stop people smoking either. A great effort has been made to deal with that, and that effort continues. Smoking cessation has been targeted by the Government for the first time, and a major improvement in public health will come of it in years to come. Nor can we stop people binge drinking or taking part in risky sexual behaviour just by passing laws. We must accept that it is not as easy for legislators to have an effect on the health of the public as it was in centuries gone by. We cannot end obesity with a vaccination programme—although I have no doubt that the pharmaceutical industry is looking into that. Indeed, some quacks advertise now, normally on the web, saying that if people buy their pills and take just a couple a day, they will lose weight. That is quackery, and weight loss does not work like that. We shall have to wait and see whether the pharmaceutical industry finds a cure in the years to come, but it has not done yet, so other factors need to interact.