The table below (via HOOP) [1] provides a summary of each of the public health issues, the prevalence of the issue in adults and children and young people as well as the direct NHS and indirect social and economic costs, (where data is available): 

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• Despite the higher direct and indirect costs, the allocation of public health funds by local authorities to help overweight and obese people to lose weight is significantly lower than the allocation for other public health issues. 

• This is short sighted and  this lack of action is the primary reason we are not seeing progress on tackling obesity. 

• Why central government funding for weight management services is not available whilst £2bn worth of central government funding has been made available for substance misuse (in addition to already high local authority investment). 

• Evidence seems to suggest that both central and local governments are either not aware of the disparity or they are simply not taking the issue of obesity seriously when compared to other public health issues. 

• Given evidence that weight management services are cost effective local and central governments should be prioritising investments that provide a positive return.

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