Dr Hilary Jones discusses UK's 'obesity epidemic' on GMB

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The new plan will see people being able to earn shopping discounts for walking more and getting their five-a-day of fruit and vegetables. These new discounts will be on offer as part of a new health app which is being offered by the Government.

The app is set to be piloted this coming January.

In an attempt to encourage exercise, the Department of Health and Social Care has pledged £3million in rewards for app users who achieved health goals.

Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said: “I want to ensure we’re doing as much as we can to tackle health disparities across the country, and this new pilot will pave the way for developing innovative ways to improve the lives of individuals, and also help to reduce strain on the NHS.”

As well as this, Mr Javid also says the scheme offers “an excellent opportunity to find how best to inspire people to make small changes to their daily lives that will have a lasting positive impact on their health”.

The health department has said that the new app will trial in an area “in due course”.

As part of the new scheme, the app is developed by HeadUp Systems and is able to be paired with devices worn on users’ wrists.

Singapore had taken similar measures in 2015 to tackle obesity.

Their government had made it an annual event where fitness trackers would be handed out in order to track how many steps people were making.

During this event, the government found that people were making 4,163 extra steps per day.

Sir Keith Mills, who led the commercial rewards programmes Airmiles and Nectar points, is the Government’s health incentives adviser.

He said: “This scheme is a fantastic opportunity to explore how government, business and the third sector can work together to deliver a new and engaging way of supporting the public to make healthier choices.”

As well as being a motivation for people, he hoped the app would “help them overcome barriers to making healthy decisions”.

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A similar scheme has also been used in Canada.

Their scheme saw 39,113 users earn four cents a day based on how many steps they make a day.

Within a study of the app, the results showed that participants had raised activity levels for people who would normally walk 5,000 steps daily.

But the new app to tackle obesity across the country is not without reason.

£6billion is spent each year by the NHS on illnesses relating to obesity.

As well as this, two-thirds of adults in England are overweight.

However, following the pandemic, Boris Johnson had committed to tackling obesity – as the Prime Minister believes that excess weight was a factor in his hospitalisations during the pandemic.

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