Correspondence: From the Department of Health and Social Care on the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023
1.Our 55th Report of Session 2022–231 drew these Regulations2 to the special attention of the House on the ground that the Explanatory Memorandum (EM) laid in support was inadequate. The Report described the EM as one of the worst that this Committee has seen. We have now, nearly eight weeks later, received a revised version from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), accompanied by a letter from the current Minister, the Rt Hon. Dame Andrea Leadsom DBE MP, which is published in Appendix 1.
2.Regrettably, we remain dissatisfied. Our first concern is that this replacement has taken so long, particularly given that the prayer period expired on 17 November. The poor-quality initial explanation and the long delay in providing a revision have combined to reduce transparency on this instrument until long after the House had an opportunity to object to it.
3.Our second concern is that, although the revision has much more information in it, this mostly reflects the information that we obtained through questions and oral evidence and used in our 55th Report. It adds little new information, but simply makes it available to a wider audience.
Making food more affordable to consumers?
4.The Minister’s letter explains that the Government’s rationale for delaying the ban on multibuys of high fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) food products was based on concerns over the effects on food inflation, but goes on to state that this inflation has already reduced by seven percentage points in the interim. In oral evidence, the previous Minister, Neil O’Brien MP, stated that he could not put a number on the likely effect on prices of the delay, although he said it would be “marginal”.3 The revised EM still does not offer any evidence of a direct link between deferring the costs to industry through this instrument and benefits to consumers from cheaper foods.
5.We particularly questioned the statement, repeated three times in the original EM, that:
“[T]he delay will support businesses and allow them to focus on making food more affordable and making it easier for consumers to make healthier choices”.
Mr O’Brien told us that he could not provide any evidence to support that claim and admitted that it was “overstated”.4 We note that the statement has now been amended to the following:
“The delay will support businesses and allow them to focus on making food more affordable.”
The first half of that statement is undisputed but, again, DHSC offers no evidence that any savings to industry will be directed towards the purpose of making food more affordable, rather than a number of other legitimate purposes.
Effects on the NHS
6.The original EM said that deferring these volume price regulations would just mean that the health benefits from this policy would take an additional two years to start accruing. The revised EM says much the same thing at greater length. But these statements do not take into account that the significant potential savings to the NHS itemised in the EM to the original regulations are also associated with significant improvements to public health and welfare and, consequently, to productivity.
7.We contrast DHSC’s estimate that the food industry would save £6 million in annual costs and £5 million in transitional costs with recent newspaper reports5 that:
- the NHS is dealing with 3,000 ward admissions a day for obesity or complications to other conditions as a result of obesity;
- this figure has doubled since 2016–17; and
- obesity is now costing the NHS £100 billion a year.
8.We remain unconvinced by DHSC’s explanation for deferring the implementation of the ban on multibuys of HFSS foods, and so the issues we raised in our 55th report remain largely unanswered. We stand by our earlier conclusion that:
“It appears to us that, for an unspecified but very small benefit to industry, and no guaranteed benefit to consumers, DHSC has delayed this policy for two years without knowing the impact of the delay on obesity levels or the opportunity cost to the NHS.”6
1 55th Report (Session 2022–23, HL Paper 263).
2 The Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/949).
3 Oral evidence taken on the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, 17 October 2023 (Session 2022–23), Q10 (Neil O’Brien MP).
5 ‘NHS is dealing with 3,000 ward admissions for obesity every day with patient numbers doubling in just six years’, Daily Mail (18 December 2023): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12875353/NHS-dealing-3-000-ward-admissions-obesity-DAY-patient-numbers-doubling-just-six-years.html; ‘Revealed: Obesity linked to 3,000 ward admissions a day’, The Times (17 December 2023): https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/obesity-uk-nhs-hospital-admissions-3000-day-5wrsvtrxb [accessed 19 December 2023].
6 55th Report (Session 2022–23, HL Paper 263), para 5.