Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support small businesses to prepare for the new calorie reduction regulations that Public Health England are introducing.

The calorie reduction programme that Public Health England (PHE) oversees on behalf of Government challenges all sectors of industry to achieve a 20% reduction in calories in key foods contributing significantly to intakes of children up to 18 years by 2024. The programme is at an early stage with stakeholders having been consulted on initial draft proposed guidelines only in autumn 2018. No decisions have been taken at this stage of development on the guidelines and whether or how these will apply to imported products. PHE is considering the points raised through the consultation and is aiming to publish the guidelines in mid-2019.

In March 2017 PHE published guidance to assist local authorities in supporting and working with small businesses on voluntary reduction initiatives including calories. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/encouraging-healthier-out-of-home-food-provision