Within the Obesity Strategy, the government is committed to regulating the promotion of less healthy foods; dedicating £100million of funding to support families to achieve, and maintain - healthier weights. As part of this new "Better Health" campaign, a new NHS Food Scanner app has been launched to assist parents in improving their children's diet.

The app itself allows food packaging bar codes to be scanned, and offers a "Good Choice" badge which enables the user to be signposted to healthier food and drinks in line with the Government's dietary recommendations for added sugar, saturated fat, and salt.

The campaign follows the latest NCMP data launched at the end of last year - identifying that 27.7% of reception age children (5/6 years old) are overweight or obese, rising to 40.9% in Year 6 (10/11 years old).

SODA (Suffolk Office of Data and Analytics) have produced a report headlining the impact Covid-19 has had on Suffolk. Detailed tables and graphs illustrate the impact the pandemic has had on health, wellbeing and communities as well as employment, earnings, benefits and housing.

Up to Mid-December 2021, 1,700 deaths have been registered in Suffolk as a result of Covid-19; however, inequalities in the county have been widened, with over 65s, women, those classified as overweight/obese and those in lower socio-economic groups being adversely affected by the pandemic.

Research from Suffolk Mind has found that the number of individuals susceptible to stress or mental ill health has also doubled since March 2020.

> The number of residents relying on benefits has increased by 78%.

> Those classified as unemployed by the department for work and pensions have increased by 30%.

> In-work universal credit claimants have increased by 101%.

> The median pay gap between England and Suffolk stood at £40 per week.