Written Statement
Less Healthy Food and Drink: Advertising Restrictions
(1 day, 15 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)
This Government have set a bold ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever, and that includes tackling the childhood obesity crisis. As part of this, we committed in our manifesto to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on TV and online.
I updated the House on 16 July, when launching a consultation on the draft regulations to provide an explicit exemption for brand advertising from the advertising restrictions. The consultation, which closed on 6 August 2025, reconfirmed the Government’s policy position that brand advertising that does not identify a less healthy food or drink product is out of scope of the restrictions. This was set out in my previous statements to the House and was understood by Parliament during the passage of the primary legislation—the Health and Care Act 2022, which amended the Communications Act 2003. The consultation sought views on the drafting of the regulations to ensure that they are clear and fit for purpose in achieving this.
We have carefully considered the responses, many of which were submitted on behalf of organisations from a range of sectors. The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport also engaged with stakeholders throughout the consultation period to understand a broad range of views.
I am delighted to inform the House that the Government are today laying before Parliament the Advertising (Less Healthy Food and Drink) (Brand Advertising Exemption) Regulations 2025, and an explanatory memorandum. The Government will also be publishing our response to the consultation on gov.uk.
We have been careful to protect the primary policy objective by ensuring that the regulations set robust and objective criteria to permit only brand advertising that does not identify specific less healthy food or drink products. This means we are being tough on junk food advertising but not pigeon-holing brands as “less healthy”; instead, we are incentivising them to reformulate and promote their healthier products. The regulations will enable the regulators to provide clear guidance on how they will enforce the restrictions. They will also allow industry to invest in advertising campaigns with confidence that they will be compliant.
Laying this legislation today demonstrates our rapid progress towards implementing the advertising restrictions, which will take legal effect on 5 January 2026. As I set out in my previous written ministerial statement—[Official Report, 22 May 2025; Vol. 767, c. 51WS.]—we have secured a unique commitment from advertisers and broadcasters, with the support of online platforms, to voluntarily comply with the restrictions from 1 October 2025. We welcome this co-operation.
We will now work closely with Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority as they finalise their implementation guidance. I am delighted that, in taking this action, we are tackling childhood obesity head-on by removing up to 7.2 billion calories from UK children’s diets each year.
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