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Written question asked by Keith Vaz (Labour) on Thursday, 7 June 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 June 2018. It was answered by Steve Brine (Conservative) on Thursday, 14 June 2018 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

NHS: Chocolate

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many chocolate boxes were sold in NHS gift shops in 2017.

Answer

NHS England does not hold complete data on the total consumption of sugary drinks across the whole National Health Service.

NHS England is currently analysing the sales data from a limited number of trusts collected since July 2017. Trusts and hospital retailers have committed to reduce the sales of sugary drinks to below 10% of total sales and initial analysis suggests this has led to a reduction in sales of sugary drinks and increase in low or zero sugar drinks.

Sales data on chocolates or fruit are not held centrally by NHS England.

The NHS is committed to improving the nutritional quality of food and drink sold on NHS sites.

NHS England has been taking action to improve the healthy choices available to staff, visitors and patients in NHS hospitals through an indicator in the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme. This scheme incentivises NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts and retailers within hospitals to remove foods which are high in fat, sugar and salt from NHS retail premises, prevent the promotion of unhealthy products and increase the healthy options available. The incentive was worth over £30 million in 2017/18.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
151063
Session
2017-19
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Chocolate NHS Sales Retail trade
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk