Further to the Scottish Government’s announcement on September 5 regarding its Programme for Government 2017-18, Aileen Campbell, the Public Health Minister for Scotland has opened a Consultation on diet and obesity.
In her statement, she outlines a number of measures designed to change Scotland's 'food culture', which include placing restrictions on advertising products high in fat, salt and sugar.
The key proposals are to:
- “strongly press” the UK Government to ban TV advertising for unhealthy foods before the 9pm watershed. If no action is taken, they will demand that the necessary powers are devolved
- examine imposing new restrictions on advertising unhealthy food at locations “used by a high proportion of children”, such as visitor attractions and routes to schools
The full consultation is available to view here and will remain open until the 31 January 2018.
ISBA and our food and drink industry members recognise the impact of obesity on our society and our part to play in tackling it. The advertising of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt in the UK is already tightly regulated. Earlier this year the Committee of Advertising Practice introduced new rules which extended the prohibition on advertising of HFSS food and drink to all media targeted at children. We are supportive of these moves and believe they are proportionate.
We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the consultation and will work with our members to ensure their views are properly represented.
If you have any questions please contact Tanya Joseph (tanyaj@isba.org.uk).