Responding to the announcement of a new Office for Health Promotion, Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

“The Office for Health Promotion needs to avoid the mistakes made by Public Health England, which was often perceived as bossy, puritanical and illiberal.  

“The new agency needs to focus on practical steps to educate the public. It will require fresh faces and fresh ideas. Failed experiments, such as the food reformulation scheme, should be dropped and nanny state activists should be kept at arm’s length. The Office for Health Promotion should not become the Office for Health Coercion.

“There is an appetite among the public for health improvement, but the sledgehammer approach of taxes and bans favoured by Public Health England has run its course.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors 

Contact: Annabel Denham, Director of Communications, 07540770774

Christopher Snowdon is available for further comment.

For further IEA reading: 

You had one job: The shortcomings of Public Health England and the World Health Organization during the Covid-19 pandemic: https://iea.org.uk/publications/you-had-one-job-the-shortcomings-of-public-health-england-and-the-world-health-organization-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/