UK Parliament / Open data

Physical Inactivity (Public Health)

Proceeding contribution from Nick Smith (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 18 November 2014. It occurred during Adjournment debate on Physical Inactivity (Public Health).

I have little time to respond, so I unfortunately cannot comment on all the cracking contributions made in the debate, but I did particularly like the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie), who talked about our spending all day in front of a screen and then going home to spend our evening in front of a screen. We should all be mindful of that. I also laughed at his story about being a Zumba orphan, because that is where his mum spends all her time these days.

I want to highlight a few points that were made in today’s debate. It is important that we reduce obesity and improve health in areas of deprivation. The costs of being unhealthy are high, particularly for clinical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. The financial costs of obesity are also high, and we need to promote physical activity. The NHS’s chief executive has spoken of the NHS being bankrupted by the high costs of physical inactivity.

I thank everybody for participating in today’s debate. We must place as much emphasis on promoting physical activity as we placed on reducing smoking in the past in order to see a successful campaign.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
588 c25WH 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
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