Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Written Statement by Lord Kamall on 11 October (HLWS298), what progress is being made in introducing mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid.

Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland are working to implement folic acid fortification, as part of the review on the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 and the Bread and Flour (Northern Ireland) Regulations 1998.

The UK Government and the devolved administrations have engaged industry on the decision to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid and are now developing draft legislation and an impact assessment for future consultation.