Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of junk food price promotions on public health.

In August 2017 we announced £5 million investment in a policy research unit on childhood obesity to provide a robust evidence, evaluation and research capability including looking at the impact of marketing, including promotions, on childhood obesity.

Alongside this, monitoring of progress by Public Health England (PHE) towards achieving the 20% sugar reduction in 2018, 2019 and 2020, will be achieved through the continued use of sales weighted average sugar levels and reviewing changes in product sales towards lower or no added sugar products. If businesses over promote high sugar products they will be less likely to achieve the sales weighted average sugar level per 100 grams for the 20% reduction. PHE’s first report will be published next month.

All reports and data published on progress in delivering our world-leading childhood obesity plan will be open to scrutiny. We will use this to determine whether sufficient progress has been made and whether alternative levers need to be considered.