Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to work with the food and drink industry on reducing the sugar and salt content of their products.

Public Health England (PHE) oversees the sugar and wider reduction and reformulation programme on behalf of the Government, as set out in chapters one and two of the childhood obesity plan and the 2019 Prevention Green Paper. PHE runs the programme, which includes food and drink industry engagement, to achieve the programme’s targets. PHE monitors and regularly reports on their progress.

In 2019, PHE published its second report on industry progress towards achieving the Government’s ambition on sugar reduction. The report shows a mixed picture of progress for food categories in scope and relevant businesses. Continued progress was reported on drinks that are subject to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. The report is available to view at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sugar-reduction-progress-between-2015-and-2018

PHE published the first detailed assessment of progress for the salt reduction programme in December 2018. PHE is now working on the development of revised salt targets as set out in the Government’s Prevention Green Paper ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’. Further information can be viewed at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/salt-targets-2017-progress-report

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/advancing-our-health-prevention-in-the-2020s