We're public health, we say what we want

This is a relatively minor lie by 'public health' standards, but telling nonetheless. Kevin Fenton is the director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England. Last week he informed his Twitter followers that...

The NDNS 2014 showed that the majority of children’s & teenager's sugar intake is coming from sugary drinks: http://t.co/wO84NlQoEK #noaw
— Kevin Fenton (@ProfKevinFenton) January 16, 2015

The trouble is, if you check the source he cites, it doesn't say that at all. It says this:

For children aged ten years and under, the main sources of NMES [non-milk extrinsic sugars] were ‘non-alcoholic beverages’ (27-30%) and ‘cereals and cereal products’ (25-29%). For children aged 11 to 18 years, ‘non-alcoholic beverages’ was the largest contributor to NMES intake, providing 40%, mainly from soft drinks (30%). ‘Fruit juice’ contributed 10-14% to NMES intake in children across the age groups. ‘Sugar, preserves and confectionery’ contributed an additional 19-22% to intake for children.

The appendix shows the % of sugar that comes from fruit juice and soft drinks in detail (click to enlarge).

Call me a pedant if you must, but I've always been under the impression that a majority is any percentage above 50 per cent, and that figures like 27 per cent, 30 per cent and—if you count fruit juice as a 'sugary drink'—40 per cent are known as a 'minority'.

Never mind though, eh? Fenton only relieves the taxpayer of £175,000 a year to do this job.

For the record, here's what the other tireless public servants at this quango get paid..

Name	Job title	Professional qualifications	How appointed	Salary level
Duncan Selbie	Chief Executive	MSc	Open competition	£185,000 to £190,000
Lis Birrane	Director of Communications	NCTJ Proficiency Certificate PGDip	Job matching	£100,000 to £105,000
Michael Brodie	Director of Finance and Commercial	CPFA	Open competition	£105,000 to £110,000
Dr Paul Cosford	Director for Health Protection and Medical Director	MBBS MSc MRCPsych FFPHM	Job matching	£160,000 to £165,000
Dr Yvonne Doyle	Regional Director	MD MPH FRCPI FFPHM FFPHMI DCH	Job matching	£165,000 to £170,000
Professor Kevin Fenton	Director of Health and Wellbeing	MBBS MSc Dip GUM FFPH PHD	Open competition	£175,000 to £180,000
Richard Gleave	Chief Operating Officer	MSc	Open competition	£130,000 to £135,000
Dr Jenny Harries	Regional Director	MBChB MPH MBA PGDip PGCert FFPH FCMI	Open competition	£125,000 to £130,000
Professor Paul Johnstone	Regional Director	BM MSc MRCGP FFPH	Job matching	£180,000 to £185,000
Jonathan Marron	Director of Strategy	MBA	Open competition	£110,000 to £115,000
Dr Christine McCartney	Director of Microbiology Services	PhD MRCPath FRCPath	Fixed term appointment	£55,000 to £60,000
Stephen Morris	Development Advisor	None	Secondment	£120,000 to £125,000
Professor John Newton	Chief Knowledge Officer	MBBS MRCP MS	Open competition	£165,000 to £170,000
Dr Rashmi Shukla	Regional Director	BM FRCP FFPH	Job matching	£165,000 to £170,000
Alex Sienkiewicz	Chief of Staff	None	Secondment	£110,000 to £115,000
Tony Vickers-Byrne	Director of Human Resources	FCIPD DMS PGCE Masters in Workforce Planning	Job matching	£100,000 to £105,000
Sally Warren	Director of Programmes	None	Open competition	£80,000 to £85,000

#AusterityBritain

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