Health committee  Nice to talk to you. Bye.

Health committee  Could you repeat the bit about mandate? I'm sorry, I missed that.

Health committee  That sort of question should keep me busy for a little while, shouldn't it? Let's start with the mandate. We don't get our mandate from the government or in fact from anywhere else. We established the principles and objectives that we believe are important to us as an independent charitable trust.

Health committee  When I left Birmingham about 12 or 13 years ago, I left it as a specialist advisor in health. We've been almost driven down a much narrower path over the last, particularly, five or six years because of, I guess, the devastation that we're seeing in terms of the obesity crisis with our young people.

Health committee  That's an interesting question. It almost presumes an either/or, and I don't see it that way. I see children in schools working with staff and caterers within a set of constraints, because at the moment what we have.... We may want to get into this when we're looking at things such as vending, snacking, the impact of advertising, and the large companies.

Health committee  Yes. I'm not sure that our government has the greatest record again in terms of consistency, with delivering role models or processes that are particularly supported. On a number of occasions recently, the government actually got into bed with big business through endorsement programs that supplied net ball posts and basketballs, for example, in return for a large collection of chocolate bar wrappers.

Health committee  I think probably Best in Class is already being overtaken by our Food for Life Partnership, the big lottery award I've just described to you, because that will, in effect, produce 180 Best in Class schools. But they won't be called Best in Class; they'll be called Food for Life gold standard.

Health committee  Sounds good to me. My previous history is one of being based in education all my life. The Health Education Trust came into existence in 1993, when I was senior advisor to the Birmingham education department. The trust is an advocate for children. It argues for best practices.

Health committee  Thank you.

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm not exactly sure what you want us to work over today, but my understanding is that it would be helpful for me to give you a brief introduction to what I do, what the Health Education Trust does, and where we find ourselves within the national context right now.