Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason the proposed ban of the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to people under 16 years of age will be implemented using the Food Safety Act 1990.

The Government has a commitment to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16 years old. This has been subject to a consultation which we ran for 12-weeks from 3 September to 26 November 2025.

In the consultation, we proposed using powers under the Food Safety Act 1990 to introduce the ban, to protect children’s health, and reduce health inequalities from the negative outcomes associated with high-caffeine energy drink consumption.

We considered the range of available evidence when developing the proposals. Our assessment is available in the consultation document, with further detail set out in the accompanying impact assessment. The impact assessment includes consideration of devolved governments’ policy on high-caffeine energy drinks.

The impact assessment also estimates the impact of our proposals, including on the vending sector. The Department engaged with relevant stakeholders, including representatives for the vending sector, to inform this. If additional information or evidence provided through the consultation or published online becomes available, we will update our final impact assessment.

The Government is considering all consultation responses and will publish its response in due course.

Any legislation proposed following the consultation outcome would depend on ministerial decisions following the consultation, impact assessment requirements, and the necessary parliamentary scrutiny.