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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has received any representations from the Scottish Government requesting that powers over the regulation of alcohol marketing and alcohol advertising be devolved.

The Secretary of State has received no recent representations, including from the Scottish Government, about widening the scope of the Communications Act 2003 to include alcohol advertising, its statutory regulation or making it a devolved matter. The Secretary of State has also had no recent discussions with Ofcom regarding alcohol advertising.

There are already very stringent regulations in place for the marketing of alcohol in traditional forms of media, including radio, TV, and cinema, and online, as well as in relation to sports promotion, through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes of practice for advertising. If new evidence emerges that clearly highlights major problems with the existing codes of practice, then the ASA has a duty to revisit the codes and take appropriate action.

As part of the Online Advertising Programme the government is currently reviewing how online advertising is regulated in the UK, including legal but harmful content, such as alcohol advertising. The consultation closed on 8 June and will help us determine how to tackle such harms. We hope to publish a Government response in due course.