Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with (a) groups representing people affected by eating disorders and (b) other stakeholders on proposals to require calorie labelling on menus.

Ministers and officials in the Department have engaged with BEAT, the eating disorder charity, as well as other groups representing the views of people living with eating disorders, on several occasions since the Government published “Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives” last July. Discussions have included out-of-home calorie labelling. We have also been careful to consider the views of a wide range of experts in response to our public consultation on introducing mandatory out-of-home calorie labelling and we will continue with this engagement going forward.

The final impact assessment for introducing mandatory calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector considered the potential effect on people living with eating disorders. The impact assessment is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/903712/Calorie_Labelling_-_Impact_Assessment.pdf