Peter Scarborough

Pete leads the Diet, Data and Interventions Group in NDPH. His research focusses on evaluating population approaches to increase the uptake of healthy, sustainable diets. This includes influences of food choice, including food price, food labelling, marketing of foods and food accessibility. 

Pete is a BHF fellow and Oxford Martin School researcher. Much of his work has been built around health models that estimate the population health impact of changes in diet (and other risk factors for disease). He developed the PRIME model, which is open for use and has supported policy evaluations in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, France, and elsewhere. He also works with the PRIMEtime model, which estimates the long-term cost-effectiveness of dietary and physical activity interventions in the UK, and he leads the modelling work package of the Wellcome Trust-funded Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project. The LEAP project has worked with integrated models of health, climate, agriculture, economics and environmental sustainability to assess the health and environmental impact of global dietary scenarios.

Pete’s work is also focussed on monitoring food systems in the UK and elsewhere. He works alongside Richard Harrington on the foodDB project, which collects comprehensive data from multiple retailers in several countries on branded food and drink products. These data have been used to support evaluations of dietary policy, including the UK soft drinks industry levy.

Pete has given evidence to the Health Select Committee enquiry on childhood obesity and has sat on expert advisory groups for Public Health England. He was a panel member for the cross-research council Global Food Security programme, and is chair of the steering committee for the NIHR-funded WRAPPED project.

Pete has worked in NDPH in various capacities since 2003. He received a DPhil in public health in 2009 for a thesis investigating geographic variations in coronary heart disease rates in England. Pete studied mathematics at undergraduate level.