Death of the corner shop as we know it

• The Scottish Government's plans include removing displays of sweets near tills in the country's corner shops. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

In a report launched yesterday, the Scottish Government said the country's obesity problem would cost taxpayers an estimated 3 billion a year by 2030 if current trends continue. It revealed that Scotland currently has the fattest population after the US and Mexico from a list of 30 countries.

The Scottish Government likened its challenge "in terms of scale and complexity" to dealing with climate change.

Holyrood public health minister Shona Robison unveiled a series of proposals to work with schools, retailers, businesses and local authorities to promote healthier lifestyles.

These include restricting the sale of high-calorie foods near schools, removing sweet displays near tills and encouraging retailers to promote healthy food.

These will be backed up with legislation to force change, if necessary.

The plans promise to change the nature of the corner shop in Scotland, where confectionery and fizzy drinks are mainstays of the trade. It follows existing plans to ban the display of cigarettes.

Ms Robison said: "No country in the world has successfully addressed obesity – and we want Scotland to be the first.

"Excellent work is already under way but we have to go further and make serious changes that will transform our entire living environment.

"We plan to work across all areas of government to ensure that policies are directed at supporting people to achieve and then maintain a healthy weight."

The report, Preventing Overweight And Obesity In Scotland – A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight, revealed that in 2008 just over a quarter of adults and 15 per cent of children in Scotland were obese, and 65 per cent of adults and 31 per cent of children were overweight.

However, the strategy has come without a price tag and doubts have been cast on the effectiveness of any anti-obesity strategy without serious funding. The Scottish Retail Consortium said retailers already helped customers to choose balanced diets without the need for regulation.

SRC director Ian Shearer said: "We support continuing efforts in this area but policymakers must recognise it's ultimately individuals who decide what they eat."

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum and chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said that the lack of a firm financial commitment to the strategy undermined it.

"I would have to place a question mark on the strategy because, unless that figure is impressive, I'm not awfully sure it's going to work," he said.

But Annie Anderson, professor of food choice at the University of Dundee, said: "I think suggestions like this are creative and deserve to be trialled.

"We've heard many parents complaining that they do their best for their children at home (to give healthy options], but once outside, it's difficult to give the same sort of guidance."

She added: "I think that what this report is a recognition that it is not just individuals who have a responsibility (to promote healthy living], that all sectors have responsibility, local authorities, retailers, everyone can make a contribution."

DRUG FEARS

A US government inquiry into the possible health risks of a diabetes pill wants the medication withdrawn because of studies linking it to heart attacks.

The US Senate Finance Committee has said that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) should pull Avandia, used to treat Type 2 diabetes, from the market after concluding the pill is more dangerous to the heart than a rival medicine

and suggested that the risks should have been investigated by the company as far back as 1999.

The report also claims that GSK tried to intimidate scientists who said the drug its second best-selling product, might be linked to heart attacks.

Concerns about the drug's side-effects were raised in a medical study and by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2007, and last year research in the British Medical Journal linked Avandia to a higher risk of heart failure in older patients.

GlaxoSmithKline denied any intimidation and said that it has studied Avandia and none of its reports shows a statistically significant association between Avandia and heart attacks.