Sugar tax – what and why?

Last week’s news has been full of stories about a sugar tax. A report from Public Health England (PHE) was due to be published on 17th July 2015. A report emerged last week, but the circumstances were confusing. Public Health England had filed the report in July, but conspiracy theories were running wild about its non publication. Executives from PHE were summoned to appear before the Commons Health Select Committee to give evidence about their findings. The Guardian described the report as leaked. Other articles noted that evidence from the report was given to the Health Select Committee and therefore effectively published. Whatever happened, the report can be seen here.

Eight “levers for action”

The report contains eight “levers for action”, as they are called. Here they are verbatim: