Appendix 1: Correspondence
Letter from The Rt Hon. Dame Andrea Leadsom DBE MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care, to The Rt Hon. the Lord Hunt of Wirral MBE, Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
I would like to thank you and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee for the detailed findings of the 55th Report of Session 2022–23 that considered the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.
I would like to also acknowledge the vital role the Committee plays in the parliamentary process, ensuring that appropriate scrutiny is provided, allowing the government to improve the quality of legislation.
I apologise for the delay in responding to the Report. Following my appointment, I wanted to take the time to consider the points raised by the Committee and in particular the ask to produce a new Explanatory Memorandum. I have taken this ask very seriously, which is why the Department will be shortly withdrawing the current Explanatory Memorandum and laying the attached new Explanatory Memorandum. I hope that this signifies how seriously we take the requirement that parliamentarians are able to understand legislation and scrutinise appropriately.
I recognise that this will not resolve all of the concerns raised by the Committee. As the report noted I think the Committee takes a different view from the Government on the timeline for implementing the policy as well as on the process. However, such debate is healthy in a democracy, and I hope you will still welcome the changes that we have made.
The new Explanatory Memorandum includes, as you requested, further context on the Government’s wider policy programme to tackle obesity rates. This includes explicit reference to the location restrictions which have already come into force and make up the overwhelming majority of the health benefits expected from the promotion and placement regulations. The Explanatory Memorandum also includes, as you requested, greater detail on the impact of the delay on the expected health benefits associated with the implementation of the volume price promotion restrictions. Additional information on the consultation responses which was provided to the Committee separately has also now been included.
Moreover, we have added additional detail on the rationale for the delay to the volume price promotion restrictions. This decision was considered at a time of high inflation (7.3% inflation and 17.4% in inflation for food) and the government did not want to take action that could have risked contributing to a further rise. You will be aware that the Government has pledged to take action to reduce inflation, and I am therefore, pleased to see the recent reductions in inflation to 4.7% in October and 10.1% in inflation for food prices and hope to see this decrease further.
While this information was shared with the Committee in your evidence session, I agree it is important for it all to be included in the Explanatory Memorandum as the key reference document and am happy to lay a new Explanatory Memorandum for this purpose. Lord Markham will also be offering a meeting with Lord Hunt of Kings Heath to discuss the changes to the Explanatory Memorandum in light of his regret motion.
In my first few weeks as the Minister for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care I have been struck by the scale of the challenge in tackling obesity and improving diets, including the huge costs to the NHS. This is why the government remains committed to taking the necessary but hard steps to bring obesity rates down and improve the diets of children and families. This is why we remain fully committed to implementing the volume price promotion restrictions in October 2025.
Having recently met with food retailers and discussed these regulations, I have been impressed that both Tesco and Sainsbury’s have voluntarily implemented the forthcoming restrictions. I will be writing to other retailers shortly to see how the government can support them to engage with the restrictions positively and potentially voluntarily implement the restrictions ahead of 2025.
Notwithstanding this particular issue, I very much look forward to a positive working relationship with the Committee to bring forward and advance the government’s legislative agenda.
18 December 2023