England’s chief medical officer (CMO), Professor Dame Sally Davies, has called for taxes on crisps and chocolate to combat excessive salt and sugar harming the public’s health and costing the NHS billions tackling obesity and diabetes.

Professor Davies said the food industry’s failure to deliver on the current voluntary targets was making it impossible for children and their parents to make healthy choices.

Under the present system, manufacturers, shops and food outlets profiting from cheap, unhealthy food “are not paying for the harm that’s doing”, particularly among deprived communities, Professor Davies said.

In her annual report she called on the government to expand the current tax on sugary drinks and said profits should be used to “subsidise healthy fruit and vegetables”.

“Our sugar targets haven’t been met so far; if we don’t get there we will need a fiscal effort to mandate it, and the same with salt,” she told a briefing on Thursday.

“We should give [the food industry] a chance but if they don’t deliver it we need to threaten them with mandating it, and then do it.”

When asked if this amounted to an expansion of the nanny state, Professor Davies said she saw it as ensuring everyone could access healthy options regardless of where they lived or went to school.

“We have to shape it so it’s easy to take the healthy choice. Do you want to call that nanny state? If so I’m chief nanny,” she said.

The number of children the NHS is treating for type 2 diabetes, which is largely caused by obesity and poor diet, has risen 40 per cent in the past three years.

One third of children leaving primary school are obese and a record proportion of 10- to 11-year-olds (4.1 per cent) were morbidly obese, according to Public Health England (PHE) figures.

The government is considering measures to limit fast food outlets near schools and other measures but on Thursday announced it was cutting public health budgets for obesity and children’s services by £85m next year.

Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Show all 10 1 /10 Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Subarachnoid vessels The runner-up image came from Matt MacGregor Sharp, a PhD student at the University of Southampton. The super-high resolution image shows a normal artery at the surface of a rat’s brain and was taken with a powerful scanning electron microscope. These ‘subarachnoid vessels’ supply blood to the brain and also act like a drain to remove toxic waste products. Matt Macgregor’s team are trying to show that failure to remove waste by these vessels is one of the underlying causes of vascular dementia. The researchers took the image using a technique called ‘freeze fracture’, where tissue or cell samples are frozen and then split apart to reveal the hidden layers within the sample so they can be studied in extreme detail. Sitting above the brown brain tissue, the artery appears blue, and its surrounding layer, the pia mater, is shown in purple. Matt MacGregor Sharp, University of Southampton, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Explosive beginnings Winner: Endothelial cells line all blood vessels in the body, forming a barrier between the circulating blood and the vessel wall. They also help to protect blood vessels from damage and release important chemical messengers which help to control blood pressure. The winning researcher, Courtney Williams, is a Masters student and PhD candidate at Leeds University. Her lab are developing new ways to map the growth of new blood vessels within their surrounding landscape in 3D. Understanding the complex secrets of blood vessel formation could be harnessed to boost the regrowth of damaged blood vessels after a heart attack, and halt blood vessel growth when it’s counterproductive. Courtney Williams, Leeds University, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize A snapshot of platelet production - Reflections of Research Supporters’ Favourite This image from Abdullah Obaid Khan, a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, won the supporters’ favourite. What look like precious jewels are actually platelets forming within the bone marrow. Platelets are the smallest of our circulating blood cells with a hugely important role in preventing bleeding. However, they also play a role in the formation of clots, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Abdullah Obaid Khan and his team are studying rare bleeding disorders. Abdullah Obaid Khan, University of Birmingham, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Cardiac collagen web - Shortlist This colourful image shows the web-like, network of the smallest blood vessels in the heart – the microvessels. Magenta marks the outer collagen layer of the vessels; while orange marks their inner lining and blue the cell nuclei. Dr Neil Dufton, Imperial College London Dr Neil Dufton, Imperial College London, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Heart to Heart - Shortlist This piece shows four ventricles (from a mouse) arranged into the shape of the hearts four normal chambers. The researchers have used fluorescent markers to recognise certain proteins and created the image using of hundreds of images assembled together. Dr Elisa Avolio and Dr Zexu Dang, University of Bristol Dr Elisa Avolio and Dr Zexu Dang, University of Bristol, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Loving artery - Shortlist This image shows a cross section of an artery and the different layers which make up the artery wall. Affiliate Professor Silvia Lacchini, University of Glasgow Silvia Lacchini, University of Glasgow, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Oxidative inkblot - Shortlist This colour explosion shows one of the culprits in cardiovascular disease – an enzyme called NADPH oxidase. The enzyme is considered ‘Janus faced’ because it is important in health, as well as disease. This picture shows the active enzyme in patients who have high blood pressure. Dr Livia de Lucca Camargo, University of Glasgow Dr Livia de Lucca Camargo, University of Glasgow, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Neon skeleton - Shortlist This image shows the developing blood vessel system of a two day old zebrafish embryo. The researchers used gene enhancers (the on-off switches of genes) to switch on fluorescent markers in different types of endothelial cells – the important cells which line all blood vessels. All blood vessels switch on the red marker, while the veins also switch on the green marker, resulting in yellow veins and red arteries. Dr Svanhild Nornes, University of Oxford Dr Svanhild Nornes, University of Oxford, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Calcium reef - Shortlist This image shows calcium in blood vessel cells from people who have high blood pressure and resembles Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Dr Rheure Alves-Lopes, University of Glasgow Dr Rheure Alves-Lopes, University of Glasgow, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin – best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Budding blood vessels - Shortlist This image shows the growing blood vessels in the mouse retina. In red you can see all the blood vessels and in yellow/green you can see the blood vessels that are actively growing (a process called sprouting). PhD candidate Kira Chouliaras, University of Oxford Kira Chouliaras, University of Oxford, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research

“The settlement announced today by the Department of Health and Social Care confirms a real-term cut of £240m in just one year,” David Finch, senior policy fellow at The Health Foundation, said.

‘Increasing spending for the NHS while cutting funding for services that impact health is a false economy,” he added.

Earlier this week PHE figures showed nearly half of salt reduction targets, to be achieved by 2017, had not been met, with salt in burgers, pasta sauces and chips among the worst culprits.

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The industry also failed to meet a 5 per cent voluntary sugar reduction target in five of eight food groups, including biscuits and chocolate, which PHE is targeting as part of a 20 per cent reduction by 2020

The sugar tax raised £150m in its first six months, despite manufacturers cutting sugar to avoid it, and Professor Davies said these funds could be earmarked for health in future rather than school sports schemes.

Calling for “radical action to improve the nation’s health by 2040”, the CMO’s report also tasks government with ensuring new technologies, such as machine-learning tools used to spot eye diseases, are available across the country – not just in big, city hospitals.

Professor Graham MacGregor, chair of both Action on Sugar and Action on Salt, called for “immediate action” on the recommendations to prevent unnecessary deaths.