Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enforce the ban on marketing baby (under six month) child milk formula in the UK; and whether they plan to extend the ban across all child milk formula.

In England overall responsibility for enforcement of the legislation governing infant formula and follow-on formula, including the marketing restrictions which apply to infant formula, rests with Local Authorities. Local authority enforcement officers will usually be the Trading Standards or environmental health department of the local authority or Port Health Authority.

In the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating advertising across traditional forms of media (print, radio, television) through its Broadcast and online advertising through its non-broadcast codes. The ASA’s rules on formula advertising are backstopped by Trading Standards. This means that the ASA can refer cases if necessary for Trading Standards to take a view on whether there are breaches of the law and apply tougher sanctions as appropriate.

There are no plans to extend the restrictions on the marketing of infant formula to include other breastmilk substitutes.