Folic Acid Fortification

Baroness Merron Excerpts

Tuesday 25th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Yes, the noble Baroness is correct, and the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Rooker—that each year’s delay involves another 200 or so babies—was very well made. The beauty of this process is that it makes me shine a light on this issue, so I will be working on quite hard on it.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My Lords, the last time this issue was raised in the Chamber, the Minister put delays down to co-ordination with the devolved Administrations and consultation with the EU due to Northern Ireland—which he referred to in the previous Question—before allowing industry to get on board. Just yesterday, noble Lords debated two statutory instruments that apply to the devolved Administrations, including one specific to Northern Ireland. Can the Minister explain why timely co-ordination across the nations has been possible on tobacco products and pharmacies but not on folic acid in flour, in respect of which time is obviously of the essence, given the importance of the neural health of babies?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness for that question; as I am rapidly learning, this is a complicated area. For the benefit of noble Lords who were not present yesterday, the tobacco arrangements are part of the Windsor agreement, so we passed primary legislation to allow us to make those changes. On the items before us, which involve secondary legislation, my understanding—if I am wrong, I will make a correction in writing—is that the co-operation of each of the devolved authorities is needed. That is why we are not able to proceed in Northern Ireland without its involvement. The plan is that we will go forward with GB-only measures if we have to. For obvious reasons, we would prefer not to do that; we want Northern Ireland to benefit from these changes as well but, as I have learned, it is a complex area.