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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Impact Report 2015 by Bye Buy Childhood, what plans they have to work with the regulators to strengthen penalties against companies who repeatedly have complaints about their advertising upheld.

Advertising in the UK is controlled through a system of co-regulation and self-regulation, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The Government supports the ASA's aim to take action against all misleading, harmful or offensive advertising and ensure compliance across all sectors. ASA has a range of sanctions it can take against non-compliant advertisers, including Ad Alerts to the media, withdrawal of trading privileges, mandatory pre-vetting and ultimately referral to Trading Standards. There are no current plans to strengthen these sanctions, but they are kept under review.