Health 19h 37m left
Should the sugar tax be extended to sweets, chocolate and snacks to tackle childhood obesity?
The sugar tax (Soft Drinks Industry Levy) applies only to pre-packaged soft drinks with added sugar, not to sweets, chocolate or snacks. From January 2028 it will also cover sugary milk-based drinks, with the threshold lowered to 4.5g per 100ml. Figures published in November 2026 show 22.8% of Year 6 children in England have obesity, a record high, while MPs have warned the government's obesity strategy is unlikely to succeed.
11 Opinions
The issue isn’t sweets and chocolate, which everybody understands are treats that are high in sugar, it’s the hidden high sugar level in some processed foods that does the damage and needs addressing.
I think there is enough information about warning of the dangers of excess sugar intake, we don't need another tax.
There are better ways to tackle obesity than making it more expensive
Just leave one joyful thing alone, for goodness' sake. The amount involved won't even make a difference. And maybe we'll learn to do the right thing with Nanny out of the picture.
Teaching children good habits is down to parents, not the state.
I dont want to live in a "nanny-state". People can make their own decisions about their intake of bloody sugar!
Yes, why not, it won’t make one jot of change to the obesity problem but it would add much needed loot to the coffers eh ?
The free market is perfectly happy to profit from childhood obesity and leave the taxpayer to fund the resulting NHS treatments. Extending the sugar tax isn't a cash grab, it's forcing corporations to take responsibility for the health costs of what they sell.
Given the continuing rise in childhood obesity, it looks like the Sugar Tax has had zero effect on childhood obesity. That means there’s no reason to extend the tax. But as we all know, the Sugar Tax was never about health anyway. That was just the excuse to fleece taxpayers even more. And that’s why they’ll almost certainly extend it. Childhood obesity has nothing to do with it.
Just keep taxing everything, I'm sure that'll help! The behemoth nanny state needs to be cut down to size, not encouraged to go further.