It’s ironic, in light of the budgetary concerns around the country (following the Chancellor’s statement) that this week the government published a major report which finally recognises that obesity is at epidemic levels.

The report was compiled by the government’s own Foresight unit over the last two years, with a huge squad of “scientific advisers”.

The Foresight report highlights dread statistics for 30 years’ time - 60 per cent of men and 35 per cent of boys obese by then, and 20 per cent of girls, with consequential reductions in life expectancy, and - worse for the Treasury - annual costs from obesity related problems set to rise from £1bn now to £6.5bn.

This is acknowledged to be a crisis and challenge of similar seriousness to climate change.

The report is short on solutions: “healthy behaviours are a challenge in today’s society”.

Modern life is geared towards people gaining weight. The top improvements suggested are - easier walking round towns and cities; targeting young children (“early intervention”); incentives for gyms at work; and taxing fatty foods.

Department of Health Minister Dawn Primarolo stated that she would work with the Foresight team over the next year to find the right measures.

ISPAL will work with other bodies, like Sport England, the CCPR, and local government, to ensure that the necessary contribution of our industry is fully recognised and adopted.