Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing restrictions on alcohol in line with existing restrictions on the marketing of less healthy food and drink.

Currently alcohol advertising and promotion in the United Kingdom is regulated primarily through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which administers the mandatory Advertising Codes, written by the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice, across media through self-regulation for non-broadcast advertising and co-regulation, with Ofcom as a statutory backstop, for broadcast advertising. The ASA’s Advertising Codes contain specific rules about how alcohol can be advertised, as they recognise the social imperative of ensuring that alcohol advertising is responsible.

The Department of Health and Social Care will continue to work with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, as the lead Government department responsible for advertising, to consider if additional statutory restrictions on marketing and advertising are needed to reduce alcohol related harms.