Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by UNICEF's Executive Director at the meeting marking the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the International Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes on 21 May, what steps they are taking (1) to end the marketing of such substitutes to new parents, and (2) to promote breastfeeding.

FCDO recognises the importance of the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes for protecting and promoting breastfeeding. Breastfeeding plays an important role in boosting children's immune systems and protecting them from malnutrition and disease. This is of particular importance in developing countries where safe use of infant formula is a challenge.

We have supported the Access to Nutrition Initiative for several years as part of our work to support safe infant feeding. This initiative holds manufacturers of breast milk substitutes to account for their marketing practices, with the objective encouraging companies to fully comply with the Code. We also support breastfeeding promotion through our health programmes. For example, in northern Nigeria and in Bangladesh we supported health workers to work with groups of mothers and fathers to discuss and solve barriers to breastfeeding to reduce illness, malnutrition and to avert preventable deaths.