Do we want the nanny state tracking our every step?

The best thing that can be said about the government’s latest anti-obesity scheme is that it’s cheap. For now. The new HeadsUp app, which will track people’s diet and exercise regimes and reward them with cinema tickets, clothes vouchers and the like, has a price tag of £3 million. This is peanuts in public health terms. The NHS burns through £3 million every eight minutes. It amounts to 4p for every man, woman and child in the UK.

The bad news is that it is only a pilot scheme. If bribing people with their own money is seen to ‘improve rates of physical activity and inspire healthier eating’, as the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly Public Health England) expects, it will go nationwide and the budget will rocket upwards. Four pence per person is nowhere enough to provide ‘vouchers, merchandise, discounts and gift cards’ for everyone who signs up to put more carrots in their shopping basket and increase their step count.