Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the sugar content of processed food, following the finding by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities that targets for sugar reduction since 2015 have not been met.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is considering the next steps for the sugar reduction programme and will continue to provide expert advice to the Government on this. It is expected the Government’s policies to tackle obesity will support efforts for sugar reduction. These include regulations restricting the placement of products high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) in key selling locations in stores and online, which came into force on 1 October 2022 and are the single most impactful obesity policy at reducing children’s calorie consumption. Furthermore, the Government will introduce restrictions on the advertising of HFSS products on TV before 9pm and on paid-for advertising of these products online on 1 October 2025. A key intention of this policy is to incentivise reformulation of HFSS products, so these are no longer captured by the restrictions.