Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the administrative burden on retailers and manufacturers of applying the Nutrient Profiling Model 2018 to in-store promotions.

The current Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) is over 20 years out of date and does not reflect the latest evidence, particularly on free sugars, which are more strongly correlated with poor health outcomes, including obesity. The Government has committed to updating the standards behind the advertising and promotions restrictions on ‘less healthy’ food and drink by applying the new NPM.

The Government published the new NPM on 27 January 2026 alongside technical guidance to support business to understand the new NPM and apply it to their products, including worked examples on how to calculate free sugars and NPM scores in a range of products. Since publication of the new NPM, we are continuing to engage with industry on what further support would be helpful.

We have launched a consultation on the proposed application of the new NPM to the advertising and promotions restrictions, which is open until 17 June 2026. The consultation seeks feedback on the impact and challenges associated with the proposal for industry and enforcement authorities and gathers views on what further support is needed to help businesses and enforcement authorities to adapt to the requirements of the new NPM. We will consider whether further guidance is needed following feedback to the consultation.

A consultation-stage impact assessment, setting out the direct costs to businesses for the proposed application of the new NPM to these restrictions, was published alongside the consultation. We will use evidence from the consultation to inform the final impact assessment which, subject to the outcome of the consultation, would be published ahead of any changes being made.

Detailed impact assessments for the current advertising and promotions restrictions, which set out the costs to industry can also be found on GOV.UK. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the restrictions and will publish a Post Implementation Review within five years of the restrictions taking legal effect.