To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of children classified as (a) overweight and (b) obese by the age of three years (i) at the present time and (ii) in 1997. (151071)

The information is not available in the exact format requested. Data on children's overweight and obesity prevalence are taken from the Health Survey for England. We can provide the prevalence of children aged two to three who are overweight or obese in England in 2002-04 combined. Data are aggregated over three years, 2002, 2003 and 2004 to achieve a sufficiently large sample for analysis at this level. These data are shown in table 1 and are published in ‘Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, England 2006’. Copies are available in the Library and at:

www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/obesity/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet-england-2006.

We can also provide the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children aged two to 10, from 1997 to 2005. Data for 2005 are the latest data available. These data are shown in table 2 and are published in the ‘Health Survey for England—Updating of trend tables to include 2005 data’, and at:

www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/health-survey-for-england/health-survey-for-england--updating-of-trend-tables-to-include-2005-data.