Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent progress she has made on reducing exposure to alcohol advertising by (a) children and (b) young people.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) is the independent regulator responsible for regulating all advertising in the UK, including alcohol advertising, through codes set by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). The Government is not involved in these codes, nor in the investigations and enforcement delivered by the ASA.

The codes state that marketing communications for alcoholic drinks should not be targeted at people under 18. Specifically, alcohol advertising is prohibited in any medium where more than 25 percent of the audience is under 18, and where advertising is permitted, it should not be likely to appeal particularly to people under 18. If an advertisement is found to be in breach of the Codes, the ASA will instruct that it be withdrawn or amended, and in some cases may escalate to the appropriate statutory authority.

Building on this backdrop, the Online Advertising Taskforce brings government and industry together to improve trust, transparency and accountability in the online advertising supply chain. A key taskforce aim is to further reduce children being served advertising for products and services illegal to sell to them. An Age Assurance working group focussed on this topic is building a more detailed understanding of the current landscape of age assurance online, and considering how it can be improved.