Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 22 May (HLWS662), whether they consulted or informed any public health organisations of the decision to delay the legislation to regulate unhealthy food and drink advertisements on TV and online before publishing that statement.

The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.  The decision to exempt brand advertising from these restrictions was made following consultation and was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the legislation in 2021.

The consistent position of the Government, as re-confirmed in a written statement in this House on 22 April 2025, is that brand advertising is not captured by the restrictions, as the legislation only restricts adverts that could reasonably be considered to be for identifiable less healthy products.

Industry raised significant concerns in response to the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) draft implementation guidance published for consultation in February 2025. We are aware that many brands have prepared advertising campaigns in good faith ahead of the previous coming into force date of 1 October 2025 and were concerned about how these adverts would be affected by the ASA’s implementation guidance.

There were several meetings between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to discuss a wide range of options for resolving this issue. This culminated in the successful resolution set out in the written ministerial statement on 22 May 2025. This announced that the Government will lay legislation to explicitly exempt ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. Providing legal clarification on the existing policy intention will provide certainty to industry and support businesses to invest in advertising with confidence, while ensuring that we deliver our commitment to protect children from exposure to junk food advertising and the lifelong harms of obesity.

Industry stakeholders were engaged shortly prior to the announcement so that they had sufficient time to agree their voluntary commitment to implement the restrictions from 1 October 2025. We informed other stakeholders at the earliest opportunity and will continue to engage with all stakeholders throughout the consultation on the draft regulations, which will be published soon.