New legislation will ban junk food adverts from appearing on TV before 9pm from October 2025, the government has confirmed.
In new details of the legislation, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said this will also include a ban on paid online junk food adverts to reduce children’s exposure to foods that are high in fat, sugar or salt and to address growing rates of obesity.
Earlier this week it was revealed that the proportion of children starting school with obesity has risen.
The ban was proposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government but it was later delayed. Labour then proposed the policy in their election manifesto.
In new guidance this week, the government published the food and drink categories that would be included in the legislation, including products such as savoury snacks, breakfast cereals, chocolate and sweets, ice creams and pizza.
It is hoped that the measures will prevent around 20,000 cases of childhood obesity and remove 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets annually.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘Obesity robs our kids of the best possible start in life, sets them up for a lifetime of health problems, and costs the NHS billions.
‘This government is taking action now to end the targeting of junk food ads at kids, across both TV and online.
‘This is the first step to deliver a major shift in the focus of healthcare from sickness to prevention, and towards meeting our government’s ambition to give every child a healthy, happy start to life.’
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis added: ‘NHS figures show that one in eight toddlers and primary school children are obese, and this is clearly a problem not only because we know that it could lead to young people having health issues later in life, but it’s also storing up problems for a future NHS which already spends billions dealing with the issue.
‘We’ve always said the NHS can play its part in supporting people who are obese to reach a healthier weight, but we need to work with the rest of society to prevent people becoming overweight in the first place.
‘So we welcome this proposed legislation and look forward to working with the government and partners to help protect the good health of future generations.’
Earlier this year, a House of Lords committee warned that tough measures were needed to fix the UK’s ‘broken food system’ and tackle the obesity crisis.
