Speeches by Coleman.

“You do not know if healthy food is less or more profitable than unhealthy food?”

“Yes, that is right.”

“No, I am talking about a pre-prepared food that is full of sugar, salt and fat, as opposed to one which is not. I am not talking about chocolate and stuff; I am talking about actual food that people might eat before they have something sweet.”

“No I am not talking calories, I am talking—”

“I am going to have to leave that there; maybe you could write to us. I have asked you to provide specific examples of what is not working and you keep saying rather general things. If you can tell me more specifics afterward, it would be lovely to hear from you. I would appreciate that. Can I just ask a question about …”

“What is the problem at the moment?”

“Forgive me for being so direct with you, but it is probably better that I am direct with you than not; you are talking very floppily. Give some specifics of how it is causing a problem to your sector.”

“I do not understand the problem and I keep asking you to give some specifics. Can you give me some specifics? You are just talking general.”

“What is wrong with the way it is delivered that you would improve?”

“No, I get the generalities, a couple of specifics would be helpful. More specifically, what is wrong about what has happened as far as your sector goes? We can all abstract and philosophise, but specifics are really helpful.”

“Yes, but how is that problematical? Chicken shops are popping up everywhere. I cannot go down the high street where I live, or anywhere nearby, without one; it seems every third shop is a chicken shop. Stuffed full of salt, fats, chickens themselves probably stuffed full of antibiotics that encourages resistance and th…”

“Give an example of what is difficult. What difficulties are caused by the fact that there is not an understanding of how your sector operates?”

“Jim, what do you think?”

“I do not understand; that was not my question. My question was, you have a choice: you either follow the law or you do not follow the law; you do it because you feel it is the right thing to do or because your consumers ask you to do it. We have had a huge amount of evidence and I am very grateful for your evidence as …”

“Just to come back to the previous question. I am very aware it is tough when Governments sometimes say, “Oh, we would like you to be nice,” when your competitor might not be as nice and why would you be the first prime mover before anyone else? Is that because there is too much voluntary requesting—why do you not, coul…”

“Just taking Tesco’s profit alone, which is in the billions, do you think £180 million in healthy product innovation across the industry is enough? And we could take the other companies’ profits as well, if you want.”

“Thanks very much for coming, Kate and Jim. In your evidence, Kate, you explained that companies invested £180 million in healthier product innovation, which we all really welcome, but the industry has an annual turnover of £148 billion. Do you think this level of investment matches the scale of the public health challe…”

“It is the same as the pharmacists being able to have time to go off and train.”

“As a final point, to come back to the CPD question, what is the particular frustration that nurses feel when it comes to being able to move forward that needs to be addressed?”

“Have you any idea how to enable that to happen? Have you any idea how much you would need to expand the workforce to enable the flexibility to take place so the coverage is always there?”