Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of current what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the absence of mandatory carbohydrate labelling in restaurants on the safety and clinical outcomes of people with Type 1 diabetes.

Legislation requiring large businesses in England, those with 250 or more employees, to display calorie information on non-prepacked food and soft drinks came into force in April 2022.

The Department carefully considered the views of a wide range of experts in response to the public consultations on calorie labelling, including expert advice from organisations such as Diabetes UK. A careful balance needed to be struck between making calorie labels as accessible and informative as possible for consumers while not disproportionately impacting businesses. It was decided that large businesses, who are responsible for nearly half of all food and drink sales, would only be required to display calorie information. This ensures that the regulations deliver the projected health benefits while minimising the risk of disproportionately burdening smaller businesses who might find the new requirement more challenging to implement. It is at the discretion of an individual business if they choose to display additional nutritional information, such as carbohydrates, on their menus.

We continue to evaluate the impact of the Out of Home Calorie Labelling Regulations and will publish a post-implementation review within five years of implementation which will consider the effectiveness and impact of the policy.