TAX ON SUGARY DRINKS

That this House is alarmed at research presented at the American Heart Association conference that suggests sugar-sweetened drinks may be associated with 180,000 deaths around the world each year; notes that data collected as part of the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases Study links 133,000 diabetes deaths, 44,000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 6,000 cancer deaths to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages; further notes that 78 per cent of these deaths were due to over-consumption of sugary drinks in low and middle-income countries rather than high-income countries; and urges the Government to take immediate action to lessen these unnecessary deaths in the UK by introducing legislation to tax sugar-sweetened beverages.