Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish all correspondence between his Department and the Food and Drink Federation on changes to the HFSS guidance between October 2022 and June 2023.

The Government is committed to tackling the childhood obesity crisis and to raising the healthiest generation of children ever.  Department officials regularly engage with a range of external stakeholders on diet and obesity policies.

The Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021 were laid during the previous Parliament. The regulations provide for restrictions on the promotion and placement in retail stores, and their online equivalents, of certain foods and drinks that are high in fat, salt, or sugar, or that are ‘less healthy’.

The Department recently responded to a freedom of information request asking for details of any correspondence between the Department and the Food and Drink Federation relating to a change made to the implementation guidance in 2023 that accompanies these regulations. The relevant information was released pertaining to a decision to exclude the term ‘minimally processed and nutritious food' from the guidance. The information released has since been made available online. There are no plans to publish further information at present.