
Sugar tax will be introduced in the UK in 2018
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced in the Budget that a tax on sugary soft drinks will take effect in 2018 to tackle childhood obesity.
Osborne said: "I am not prepared to look back at my time here in this Parliament, doing this job and say to my children's generation: 'I'm sorry - we knew there was a problem with sugary drinks. We knew it caused disease, but we ducked the difficult decisions and we did nothing'."
According to the Chancellor, the 2018 date has been set to allow the industry time to adjust and £520 million is expected to be raised and will go towards primary school sports.