Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to respond to the consultation entitled Updating labelling guidance for no and low-alcohol alternatives, published on 28 September 2023.

In our 10-Year Health Plan, the Government committed to exploring whether to raise the upper alcohol limit for drinks labelled as alcohol-free to 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) from 0.05% ABV, as set out in the current labelling guidance for no and low (NoLo) alcohol drink alternatives.

Our 10-Year Health Plan also included a commitment to strengthen and expand on existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages.

My officials are progressing work to take forward these commitments and we will update stakeholders in due course. The timelines for delivery are yet to be determined.

Alongside the plan, a large, multi-year National Institute for Health and Care Research study is underway to examine the public health impacts of NoLo products, and we look forward to the findings of the study being available in the coming year.