L

Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 18 November 2024

Debate

NHS: Anti-obesity Medication

Contribution

My Lords, I welcome my noble friend to the Front Bench and wish him well—especially if he is going to give some good replies to my questions too. My concern is the potential cost of the new drugs to the NHS, which could be crippling. Secondly, my concern is about youngsters who have type 2 diabetes. I foresee the possibility that these drugs could be prescribed to children and teenagers. That is a great worry for all of us—to see people self-administering in that way. There are alternatives and there are cheaper alternatives. It behoves us to explore all of those before we start embarking on massive expenditure programmes. Could I get an assurance from my Minister that we are doing everything that we can with the private sector—the producers of food and drink—to ensure that we reduce the amount of sugar, particularly, and that we seek reformulation of food and drink, which will be much cheaper than spending a lot of money on an alternative new drug?

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