My Lords, I declare my interests—there are a lot of them in terms of food, but this is for a specific reason: I am a trustee of the Food Foundation, chair of Feeding Britain, a patron of Sustain, an adviser on the national food strategy and chair of VegPower. I also work with Cancer Research and the Obesity Health Alliance.
We welcome the Health and Care Bill, which contains provisions to limit adverts of unhealthy food and drink on TV and online to protect children’s health. I also support the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, on alcohol, which is not covered in my amendment. She is completely right about the fact that such advertising encourages people to drink—something I know a lot about, to my cost—and put on weight.
These provisions are found in Schedule 17 of the Bill. All the different charities and NGOs I have worked with have argued for this for many years and we are incredibly pleased that the Government have made these provisions part of the Bill. They have been supported by all of us, and the Obesity Health Alliance and all cancer charities. So, I am shocked—we all are—and puzzled that during this Committee, quite a lot of amendments have been tabled in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Moylan and Lord Vaizey of Didcot, that would directly weaken or delay these proposals. As far as I know, and I have worked in the food business for a long time, I have not seen their names associated with campaigns to do with children’s health—in particular, around obesity.
I want quickly to explain what these amendments would do. Amendments 245, 255, 256, 257 and 317 would delay implementation of the various restrictions—for example, blocking the 9 pm TV watershed until a full calendar year after Ofcom publishes the technical guidance. This would delay the planned implementation by at least six months. We all appreciate that the food and advertising industries will need time to review the technical guidance, but this is just too long.
Amendments 245A and 250ZA would limit the restrictions, so that they apply only at weekends, but kids do not watch TV only at weekends. Amendments 247, 250A and 253A would enshrine exemptions for brand adverts if specific products are not displayed; for example, McDonald’s could advertise lettuce. The Government have already stated that brand advertising will be exempt from some of these restrictions, so why do we have to go further?
Amendments 248 and 251 would exempt certain unhealthy products from the restrictions, including
“chocolate confectionery in portion sizes smaller than 200 kcal”.
The amendments conflict entirely with the purposes of the policy, which is to limit children’s exposure to the advertising of products that are high in fat, sugar and salt. Quite frankly, some products of under 200 calories can contain more than half of a child’s recommended daily sugar limit.
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Finally, Amendments 249A, 252A and 257A would impose a sunset clause resulting in the regulations being repealed after a review period if a set of undefined criteria were not met. As with all government policies, these regulations are already subject to a standard five-year review period where the impact will be assessed. The proposed sunset clause has absolutely no precedent.
More generally—I will keep this short because I think we all know it—Covid-19 has made clear the high prevalence of excess weight and has come up with new and very scary data. The scale of the issue is only growing. Two in five children in England are now above a healthy weight, with a quarter of them living with actual obesity when they leave primary school—they are only 10 or 11. This last year saw the fastest increase in childhood obesity prevalence on record, and children with obesity are five times more likely to become adults with obesity, increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and liver disease. Many noble Lords have spoken about this; I am not going to go on about it.
My Amendment 244A would make it a requirement for the Secretary of State to review whether it is desirable to impose further restrictions on the advertising of less healthy food and drink within the definitions given in paragraph 1 of Schedule 17, with particular attention to outdoor advertising, which is all too often placed near schools or at bus stops where kids wait to go here and there. This has had quite a bit of success in London, where it already happens.
I—indeed all of us—have been very disappointed to see the level of opposition from certain sectors of the food and advertising industries to these incredibly modest proposals to improve public health and ensure that only healthier products should be advertised. Unfortunately, lobbying of this nature has derailed many attempts—I have had a lot of lobbying myself. We urge the Government to resist this industry-backed lobbying, both from food industries and the media. We would have hoped that more companies would have taken the opportunity to proactively transition to advertising more healthy products or indeed use this time to reformulate their products, which has happened really well as a result of the sugar tax.
We are also concerned about a number of government amendments that have been moved to enable Ofcom to publish technical guidance on the regulations in advance of the proposed restrictions, which are due to come in on 1 January next year. Crucially, Amendments 249 and 252 would allow the Secretary of State to delay this beyond that planned date. Without a doubt, that would open the door to yet further industry lobbying.
Advertising works—we all know it. I mention now a particular personal situation that I would like to have on record. I am the chair of VegPower. We did a campaign called Eat Them to Defeat Them, which produced a series of incredibly good ads in which children and vegetables were in a war, and where the vegetables were trying to attack people. It was hugely supported by ITV, Channel 4 and Sky. They ran these adverts for free, and I am very grateful for that, but I do not believe that one big right necessarily mitigates another wrong. They do not support the Government’s
amendment because this is clearly an attack on big revenue. Food advertising pays. At the moment, 96% of advertising goes on unhealthy food; a mere 2% goes on unadorned things such as vegetables. Kids are widely advertised at, and we must not back-track.
ITV asked me specifically about the unfairness of limiting terrestrial broadcasters to these restrictions while allowing online ones to do what they like. That is why I have introduced Amendment 253AA, to try to place restrictions on online platforms. I know that is much more difficult, but that does not mean that we should not try. Cash must not outweigh children’s health. I support this government amendment and I am completely thrilled that they have tabled it. I just urge the Government, on behalf of all the charities and outfits that I mentioned: do not back-track.