Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of widening the scope of the infant formula legislation to include the (a) digital and (b) other marketing of all (i) formula milks up to age 36 months and (ii) (A) bottles, (B) teats and (C) other equipment.

Infant feeding is critical to a baby’s healthy growth and development. The Government is committed to giving every child the best start in life, and that includes helping families to access support to feed their baby.

Whilst breastfeeding has significant health benefits, we recognise that for those families that cannot or choose not to breastfeed, it is vital that they have access to infant formula that is affordable and high quality. Infant formula regulations ensure that all infant formula and follow on formula are safe and meet the nutritional requirements of babies and infants.

The regulations cover the composition, marketing, and labelling of infant formula and follow-on formula but they do not cover bottle, teats, or other equipment, and there are no plans to extend the regulations to these areas nor to extend the regulations to other formula milks.