The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)
Today, I am updating the House on the implementation of the TV and online advertising restrictions for less healthy food or drink that are due to come into force UK-wide on 1 October 2025. I wish to re-confirm the Government’s view on how the restrictions will apply to brand advertising, and give an update on how we are working with Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority, as the regulators, to ensure an effective and proportionate implementation of the restrictions.
This Government have set a bold ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever and take action to address the childhood obesity crisis. As part of this ambition, this Government made a manifesto commitment to implement advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on TV and online. These are designed to reduce children’s exposure to less healthy products, based on evidence that they contribute to childhood obesity, as well as incentivise businesses to reformulate their products and help create a healthier food environment for our children. Alongside this and in support of the Government’s growth mission, we want to deliver proportionate regulation that balances the health benefits with the impact on businesses.
To achieve these objectives, the Communications Act 2003—as amended by the Health and Care Act 2022 —sets out that the restrictions will apply to adverts for ‘identifiable’ less healthy food and drink products. ‘Identifiable’ means if persons in the UK could reasonably be expected to be able to identify an advert as being for a less healthy product.
While it is for a court to interpret the legislation, the Government’s view remains that pure brand advertising is not in scope of this policy. This is because the legislation only restricts adverts that could reasonably be considered to be for identifiable less healthy products, and not adverts that could be reasonably understood to be advertising brands. This has been the consistent position of this Government and was clearly stated to Parliament during the passage of the Health and Care Bill. We therefore expect that businesses will still have opportunities to promote their brands, provided that their adverts do not identify a less healthy product. For example, brands could promote their non-product attributes, such as corporate social responsibility commitments or customer experience, or advertise the healthier products within their portfolios. We do not expect the perception of a corporate brand, or its association with less healthy products, to automatically bring an advert into scope of the restrictions. The Government do not intend to prevent brands from advertising, but instead intend to give businesses an incentive to innovate and create healthier products.
We understand that businesses need clarity in order to plan and secure future advertising campaigns. We also recognise the considerable investment they have already made in preparing for the restrictions coming into force. The Government have been clear that, while a robust regulatory framework is needed, we expect regulators to act in a way that supports economic growth, and helps industry to make future investment decisions and innovate with confidence.
The Government and the regulators share the same aims: to offer clarity and support to businesses as these restrictions are introduced. While it is of course for the regulators to act independently, we anticipate that they will want to act quickly and firmly on any obvious breaches of the law where a less healthy product is clearly identified in an advert. However, in other instances and where the circumstances make it appropriate, in the Government’s view, the law provides considerable discretion in how the available enforcement tools can be used positively to support a business to move to compliance over a period of time.
The ASA will finalise its implementation guidance following consultation. We know that the ASA is already engaging with industry and will continue to do so following publication of the final guidance later in the spring.
By implementing the advertising restrictions and taking preventative action now, the Government are beginning to fix the foundations of good health, and are protecting the next generation, so that it can become the healthiest ever.
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