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Developed in response to the growing concerns about obesity, the National Obesity Forum's State of the Nation's Waistline 2015 report sets out a suite of recommendations that aim to help reduce the incidence of obesity and offer solutions for management of this disease, which is vital before this condition cripples an already ailing NHS.

In a recently published study, van Jaarsveld and Gulliford (2015) have used primary care electronic health records to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 2–15-year-old children in England and compared trends over the last two decades (1994–2003 and 2004–2013). Height, weight and BMI data of 370 544 children were accessed from 375 general practices in England that contribute to the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.

An extension of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), one of the key initiatives in the current battle to bring childhood obesity in the UK under control, has been deemed by a recent House of Commons Health Select Committee report as being an issue not worthy of consideration by May’s incoming administration (House of Commons, 2015). Seemingly against the advice of its Chair, and former GP, Sarah Wollaston, who very publicly called for such a move last year (Chorley, 2014), the opportunity to make a real advance in the battle has been lost.