The national child measurement programme (NCMP)

Primary care trusts became responsible for collecting annual data on the height and weight of children in Reception (4–5-year-olds) and Year 6 (10–11-year-olds) classes in state primary schools from 2006.

The initiative was part of the Department of Health's effort to meet its public service agreement (PSA) target on reducing childhood obesity, which had been set in 2004.

The purpose of the initiative was to generate data and information to help local areas understand and gauge the prevalence of child obesity, allowing for local planning and delivery of appropriate services for children. The data also permitted population-level intelligence to be gathered for national analysis.

On 1 April 2013 it became the responsibility of local authorities, as part of their new public health functions.