Schools will make a significant contribution to halting the obesity epidemic only if their approach to healthy living counts towards their overall performance, according to a report by the Medical Research Council.

Issues such as the curriculum, canteen menus, vending machines for snacks and soft drinks, PE lessons and the provision of bicycle racks should be considered when grading a school, the report said. Head teachers and their staff can play a key role in promoting a healthy lifestyle, but will not give this sufficient priority unless it is included among the criteria on which school performance is judged.

The call was made in A Leaner Fitter Future: Options for Action, which brings together the views of 28 organisations — from the scientific, health, educational, industry, sport and consumer sectors — on how best Britain can prevent childhood obesity.

The report adds to pressure on the Government to tackle obesity.

Sir John Krebs, the chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said on Sunday that childhood obesity threatens to lower life expectancy for the first time in a century. Among adults, 21 per cent of men and 23.5 per cent of women are clinically obese, with a further 47 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women overweight. Figures from the Department of Health show that at least 8.5 per cent of six-year-olds and 15 per cent of 15-year-olds in England are clinically obese.

Susan Jebb, of the MRC Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge, said that action was essential, and that school inspections would be an ideal place to start.

“There is a lot of goodwill on the issue among teachers but several organisations have pointed out that, if we really want to start schools paying more than lip service to the problem, it has to become part of the Ofsted criteria on which they are assessed,” she said.

The National Association of Head Teachers said that most heads saw management issues as more important than promoting healthy living. “It is important to consider the issue of food in schools more holistically,” it said.

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