Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to make purposely delaying calling emergency services during a medical emergency a crime.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government has no current plans to bring forward legislative proposals to make it a crime to delay calling emergency services during a medical emergency.
Although no general duty applies to members of the public to act in such circumstances in England and Wales, a duty of care may apply where it can be established under statute, contract or where a relationship of proximity exists between the parties, for example such as a child or vulnerable older person.
Where a duty of care is found to exist, and there has been a serious breach of that duty, particularly where a lack of care led to the death of the victim, a person may be liable to criminal prosecution under the law of gross negligence manslaughter.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement HCWS652 of 22 May 2025, what assessment he has made of adequacy of the Advertising Standards Authority to perform the role of frontline regulator for the upcoming regulations of HFSS food and drink advertising on TV and online.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
As announced in our Written Ministerial Statement on 22 May, we are working with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to bring forward a statutory instrument (SI) that will provide an explicit exemption for ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. This will provide legal clarification on this aspect of the existing policy, which we consulted upon and which was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the Health and Care Bill. We will consult on the draft regulations before they can be finalised and laid before Parliament, which we aim to do as soon as possible. We have amended the coming into force date for the advertising restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026, to allow for this and for the Advertising Standards Authority to publish implementation guidance on how the restrictions will be enforced. However, industry stakeholders have complied with the restrictions voluntarily, as though they will still come into force from 1 October 2025.
The Government appointed Ofcom as the statutory regulator for the advertising restrictions. Ofcom has appointed the Advertising Standards Authority as the frontline regulator to carry out the day-to-day enforcement following consultation.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement UIN HCWS652 of 22 May 2025, what his planned timeline is for regulations on the advertising of HFSS food and drink products.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
As announced in our Written Ministerial Statement on 22 May, we are working with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to bring forward a statutory instrument (SI) that will provide an explicit exemption for ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. This will provide legal clarification on this aspect of the existing policy, which we consulted upon and which was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the Health and Care Bill. We will consult on the draft regulations before they can be finalised and laid before Parliament, which we aim to do as soon as possible. We have amended the coming into force date for the advertising restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026, to allow for this and for the Advertising Standards Authority to publish implementation guidance on how the restrictions will be enforced. However, industry stakeholders have complied with the restrictions voluntarily, as though they will still come into force from 1 October 2025.
The Government appointed Ofcom as the statutory regulator for the advertising restrictions. Ofcom has appointed the Advertising Standards Authority as the frontline regulator to carry out the day-to-day enforcement following consultation.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NT-proBNP testing is implemented in Community Diagnostic Centres.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NT-proBNP is a well-established blood test used across the National Health Service in the detection of heart failure. All standard and large model community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are required to offer blood tests via a phlebotomy service, and the majority of spoke model CDCs also offer this service.
All NHS pathology networks have laboratories that are equipped to provide results for these blood tests.
14 CDCs are also currently able to provide NT-proBNP blood tests as a point of care test (POCT), where results can be assessed on site while patients wait, allowing patients to get results on the same day. NHS England is working with CDCs to expand the number offering this test as a POCT test.
NHS England has also released guidance to increase the use of NT-proBNP tests as a triage tool for referral to echocardiography services. The guidance has been published, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 22 May 2025 on Childhood obesity, HCWS652, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) delaying implementation of advertising restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026 on the number of additional advertisements for less healthy food that will be shown on television and (b) exempting brand advertising from the restrictions on children's health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
We have not undertaken an assessment of the impact of moving the enforcement date of the restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026, or of providing an exemption for ‘brand advertising’ from the regulations, because we are not changing the policy but instead providing legal clarification on an existing aspect of the policy. We have secured a unique and public commitment from advertisers and broadcasters to voluntarily comply with the restrictions from 1 October 2025, meaning we do not expect to see adverts for specific identifiable less healthy products shown on television between 5:30am and 9:00pm, or at any time online. Therefore, from 1 October, we expect to achieve the outcomes of the policy as planned, which will protect children from the harms of junk food advertising and begin to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year.
We received representation from a range of stakeholders in response to the Advertising Standards Authority's revised implementation guidance, and following my written statement of 7 April 2025. This included written correspondence from industry bodies, broadcasters, advertisers, and non-government organisations. We listened carefully to the concerns raised by all stakeholders, and we have worked with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to find a resolution that supports economic growth by ensuring that industry has the confidence to invest in advertising that complies with the restrictions, whilst protecting children from advertising of less healthy products.
An impact assessment was published in 2021, along with the laying of the primary legislation, which recognised that brand advertising that did not identify less healthy products is out of the scope of the restrictions. This remains fit-for-purpose, as we are not changing the policy but providing legal clarification on the existing policy.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations his Department received on the Advertising Standards Authority's guidance on the advertising of foods high in (a) fat, (b) sugar and (c) salt in (i) 2024 and (ii) 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
We have not undertaken an assessment of the impact of moving the enforcement date of the restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026, or of providing an exemption for ‘brand advertising’ from the regulations, because we are not changing the policy but instead providing legal clarification on an existing aspect of the policy. We have secured a unique and public commitment from advertisers and broadcasters to voluntarily comply with the restrictions from 1 October 2025, meaning we do not expect to see adverts for specific identifiable less healthy products shown on television between 5:30am and 9:00pm, or at any time online. Therefore, from 1 October, we expect to achieve the outcomes of the policy as planned, which will protect children from the harms of junk food advertising and begin to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year.
We received representation from a range of stakeholders in response to the Advertising Standards Authority's revised implementation guidance, and following my written statement of 7 April 2025. This included written correspondence from industry bodies, broadcasters, advertisers, and non-government organisations. We listened carefully to the concerns raised by all stakeholders, and we have worked with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to find a resolution that supports economic growth by ensuring that industry has the confidence to invest in advertising that complies with the restrictions, whilst protecting children from advertising of less healthy products.
An impact assessment was published in 2021, along with the laying of the primary legislation, which recognised that brand advertising that did not identify less healthy products is out of the scope of the restrictions. This remains fit-for-purpose, as we are not changing the policy but providing legal clarification on the existing policy.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 7 April 2025 on Childhood Obesity, HCWS579, whether her Department received representations from industry after that statement was made.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
We have not undertaken an assessment of the impact of moving the enforcement date of the restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026, or of providing an exemption for ‘brand advertising’ from the regulations, because we are not changing the policy but instead providing legal clarification on an existing aspect of the policy. We have secured a unique and public commitment from advertisers and broadcasters to voluntarily comply with the restrictions from 1 October 2025, meaning we do not expect to see adverts for specific identifiable less healthy products shown on television between 5:30am and 9:00pm, or at any time online. Therefore, from 1 October, we expect to achieve the outcomes of the policy as planned, which will protect children from the harms of junk food advertising and begin to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year.
We received representation from a range of stakeholders in response to the Advertising Standards Authority's revised implementation guidance, and following my written statement of 7 April 2025. This included written correspondence from industry bodies, broadcasters, advertisers, and non-government organisations. We listened carefully to the concerns raised by all stakeholders, and we have worked with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to find a resolution that supports economic growth by ensuring that industry has the confidence to invest in advertising that complies with the restrictions, whilst protecting children from advertising of less healthy products.
An impact assessment was published in 2021, along with the laying of the primary legislation, which recognised that brand advertising that did not identify less healthy products is out of the scope of the restrictions. This remains fit-for-purpose, as we are not changing the policy but providing legal clarification on the existing policy.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 22 May 2025, HCWS652, on Childhood obesity, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of delaying the legal implementation of advertising restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026 on children's health outcomes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
We have not undertaken an assessment of the impact of moving the enforcement date of the restrictions from 1 October 2025 to 5 January 2026, or of providing an exemption for ‘brand advertising’ from the regulations, because we are not changing the policy but instead providing legal clarification on an existing aspect of the policy. We have secured a unique and public commitment from advertisers and broadcasters to voluntarily comply with the restrictions from 1 October 2025, meaning we do not expect to see adverts for specific identifiable less healthy products shown on television between 5:30am and 9:00pm, or at any time online. Therefore, from 1 October, we expect to achieve the outcomes of the policy as planned, which will protect children from the harms of junk food advertising and begin to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year.
We received representation from a range of stakeholders in response to the Advertising Standards Authority's revised implementation guidance, and following my written statement of 7 April 2025. This included written correspondence from industry bodies, broadcasters, advertisers, and non-government organisations. We listened carefully to the concerns raised by all stakeholders, and we have worked with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to find a resolution that supports economic growth by ensuring that industry has the confidence to invest in advertising that complies with the restrictions, whilst protecting children from advertising of less healthy products.
An impact assessment was published in 2021, along with the laying of the primary legislation, which recognised that brand advertising that did not identify less healthy products is out of the scope of the restrictions. This remains fit-for-purpose, as we are not changing the policy but providing legal clarification on the existing policy.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the initiative of the UN Secretary General to create a humanitarian aid corridor from Bangladesh into Rakhine State, Myanmar.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Rakhine, including the deteriorating food security situation. The UK continues to advocate for safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all those in need in Myanmar. The long-term solution for Rohingya refugees remains a voluntary, safe and dignified return to Rakhine state in Myanmar, once the conditions there allow.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to issue guidance on ultra-processed food consumption as part of a public health strategy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We face an obesity crisis, and the Government will take action to tackle the root causes of obesity head on, easing the strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever.
We have already laid secondary legislation to restrict advertisements of less healthy food and drink to children on television and online, we are limiting school children’s access to fast food, and we are taking steps to ensure the Soft Drinks Industry Levy remains effective and fit-for-purpose. We are also commissioning research to improve the evidence on the health impacts of ultra processed foods (UPFs). Through our Plan for Change, we will shift the focus of healthcare from sickness to prevention, reducing the burden of obesity on public services and the NHS.
Scientific risk assessment and United Kingdom dietary recommendations are based on robust independent risk assessments by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). The SACN has considered the impact of processed foods on health in position statements published in 2023 and 2025. The SACN has concluded that the observed associations between higher consumption of processed foods and UPFs and adverse health outcomes are concerning.
The SACN recommended that on balance, most people are likely to benefit from reducing their consumption of processed foods high in energy, saturated fat, salt, and free sugars, and which are low in fibre. This is based on the nutrient content of many UPFs and concerns raised in relation to health. The SACN will continue to keep the topic under review.
Current UK dietary recommendations, based on the SACN’s advice, already indicate that many foods classified as ultra processed such as crisps, biscuits, cakes, confectionery, and ice cream are not part of a healthy, balanced diet. They also emphasise a diet based on fruit, vegetables, and wholegrain or higher fibre starchy carbohydrates, with less red and processed meat, and with less foods high in saturated fat, salt, and free sugars.
The SACN’s recommendation aligns with our existing policies for supporting healthier diets and our advice to consumers. Further action on obesity under the Government’s Health Mission will be set out in due course.