Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with (a) credit reference agencies and (b) supermarkets about the use of loyalty cards to analyse food consumption patterns to improve health.

The Department is in regular contact with the major high street retailers through its voluntary partnership with the food industry, including about how loyalty card data might be used to support and enable consumers to adopt a healthier diet. The Department makes use of other data sources, including Kantar and the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, to analyse food purchasing and consumption patterns.

The Department has held no discussions with credit reference agencies about the use of loyalty cards.