'Taxation alone won't stop obesity'

Tougher action - including taxing junk food - is needed by all governments if the obesity crisis is going to be tackled, experts have warned.

The international group of researchers, who have published a series of articles in The Lancet, said no country had yet got to grips with the problem.

But speaking to the BBC, public health minister Anne Milton insisted that taxation was not the key to solving the issue and that an element of "personal responsibility" was necessary.

She said the UK had a "major problem" with obesity, citing better education and working with the food industry as key parts of the government's anti-obesity strategy.