Asked by: Jo Gideon (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 15 of the report by Bite Back entitled Fuel us don't fool us, published in 2024, what steps he is taking to prevent the food industry from targeting children; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring manufacturers to remove (a) child-appealing features and (b) misleading health claims from unhealthy products.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The Government is committed to working with businesses to ensure we create the conditions for a healthier nation, and we are considering the recommendations from Bite Back’s report, Fuel Us, Don’t Fool Us. We are committed to addressing childhood obesity by implementing an ambitious programme of measures. These include restricting the location of foods high in fat, salt, or sugar in shops and online, which came into force on 1 October 2022. These restrictions will have the single biggest impact on reducing children’s calorie consumption and are expected to accrue health benefits of over £57 billion, and provide the National Health Service savings of over £4 billion over the next 25 years.
On 1 October 2025, the volume price promotion restrictions will come into force, restricting volume price promotions such as three for two offers on less healthy products. The Government will simultaneously introduce a United Kingdom wide 9:00pm television watershed for products high in fat, salt, or sugar, and a restriction of paid-for advertising of these products online. We continue to work with industry on the Food Data Transparency Partnership in co-developing voluntary reporting requirements for food businesses to demonstrate the healthiness of their sales.