Junk Food Advertising and Childhood Obesity

Debate between Louise Haigh and Maggie Throup

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Westminster Hall

[Maggie Throup]

There has been a step change in the industry. It has realised that if it does not take steps itself, more punitive measures may be imposed. Hopefully, debates such as this one will help the industry and other corporate bodies to take responsibility, which is a good way to address the issue.

It is well recognised that children and young people are particularly vulnerable to junk food advertising. Evidence shows a link between advertising and the types of food that that group prefer to buy and eat. Restrictions to advertising in or around programmes specifically made for children were introduced 10 years ago, but no Government since have made any effort to update the broadcast rules, despite widespread recognition of the health harms of junk food advertising. Anybody watching “Newsnight” last night will have seen that advertisers are finding ways to circumvent the rules, which is not what rules are there for.

By applying broadcast restrictions only to children’s programming, the pattern of TV viewing by children today is not taken into account.

[Louise Haigh (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab)]

The hon. Lady makes a powerful case about advertising. Evidence suggests that children as young as 18 months old can recognise branded products, so it has a significant and pernicious impact on very young children. Many people may not expect that. Does she agree that the rules need to be extended, not just for broadcast to ensure that they affect family viewing time, but to online advertising as well?

[Maggie Throup]

I completely agree. Some of the new restrictions imposed by the Committee of Advertising Practice in July aimed to do that, so that whatever method a child is viewing by, whether it is gaming or whatever, it is controlled. At a meeting just before Christmas, the committee said that it had still not been able to analyse the impact of the restrictions. Hopefully, in a few months’ time, we will get some feedback as to whether they are working or not—let us hope that they are.

Children are viewing TV—and lots of other media, as the hon. Lady said—in different ways, so we are calling for that to be taken into consideration to ensure that legislation is up to date. The rules are outdated and we urgently need an update to reflect changing viewing patterns.

We could debate whether restrictions on advertising are the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Care or of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, but ultimately we are discussing the health of our future generations. The Department of Health and Social Care should grasp that responsibility and make a difference.

The soft drinks industry levy, which has received a tremendous amount of attention, is a matter for the Treasury, but it appeared in the childhood obesity plan published by the then Department of Health in August 2016. There is no reason why introducing advertising restrictions for the sake of our nation’s health should be deemed to be under the DCMS remit.

The Minister indicated to me that it was too early to have this debate as he may not be able to give any concrete answers, but it is never too early to have a debate on an issue that affects our children’s health. “Childhood obesity: a plan for action” states that it is just the “start of a conversation”. It would be wrong of us, as parliamentarians, not to take every opportunity to continue that conversation. I hope that this debate influences the next stages of the measures to tackle childhood and adult obesity.

We have passed the stage of assuming that the implementation of further restrictions to the advertising of food and drinks high in fats, salt and sugar is part of a nanny state. There is now consensus across the House that responsibility and duty of care needs to be shown to our children and young people through bold and brave actions that will have an impact not only on future generations but on people today.

Before I finish, I have two more thoughts to throw into the mix. First, we should be mindful that there must be an element of personal and parental responsibility. Secondly, it is not a coincidence of scheduling that these adverts run alongside some of our biggest TV shows, such as the “The X Factor”, “Britain’s Got Talent”, “I’m a Celebrity”, “Hollyoaks” and “The Simpsons”. If we are to truly effect change, we need some of that star magic, as Jamie Oliver demonstrated.

The power of celebrity cannot be underestimated. With that in mind, I call on household names such as Simon Cowell, Ant and Dec, Dermot O’Leary and Amanda Holden to take some corporate responsibility, stand up to broadcasters and say that they will no longer be used as a hook to sell harmful junk food to our children and theirs.