The new government is already pursuing a more interventionist approach to food and health policy but faces pressure to go further. By Nick Hughes.
A programme of free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England will start to roll out in April next year, the government has confirmed.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this week to announce a staged rollout will begin with a £7m pilot involving up to 750 schools which will run free breakfast clubs for their pupils in the summer term.
The policy is part of a wider package of measures announced by the new government aimed at enabling people to eat a more nutritious diet. Labour has also confirmed that a 9pm watershed for adverts promoting foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) and a total ban on junk food adverts online will be introduced from October 1st 2025.
Plans for a ban on the sale of high caffeine energy drinks to under 16s were also included in the legislative programme for this Parliament set out in the King’s Speech.
The shift towards a more interventionist approach to food policy has coincided with the publication of two significant reports that spell out the parlous state of the NHS and public health and wellbeing.
An independent investigation of the NHS in England by Lord Ara Darzi, an honorary consultant surgeon at Imperial College Hospital NHS Trust, concluded that the health service is in “serious trouble” and “the health of the nation has deteriorated”.
Darzi touched on diets only briefly in his 160-page report but was critical of how “bold action has been sorely lacking on obesity and regulation of the food industry”. The consultant surgeon, who served as a health minister under Gordon Brown, contrasted food policy inertia with tobacco policy where a succession of government interventions have driven a significant decrease in smoking rates.
Meanwhile, the final report of the IPPR commission on health and prosperity found that better health could help meet the UK’s biggest, specific economic challenges by increasing the labour supply, boosting productivity and improving earnings.
That report contended that better health will only be possible if the UK moves from a sickness model of health policy to a health creation one, ensuring that industries like food and alcohol do not thrive at the expense of public health. Among a series of recommendations it called for new levies on unhealthy food; investment in healthy foods of the future; and universal free school meals for all primary school children – including a nutritional premium to boost their quality.
Narrative shift
Labour is desperate to reset the political narrative after a damaging few weeks in which media headlines have centred on controversy over the cut to winter fuel payments and a culture among MPs of accepting free gifts and hospitality.
Health secretary, Wes Streeting, has spoken of his desire to put a greater focus on prevention at the heart of government health policy. Speaking to The New Statesman last week, Streeting stated: “I’m not remotely interested in being the fun police or telling people how to live their lives. What I do recognise is that people are becoming sicker sooner in life and we’ve got to push chronic disease and illness into later life because it’s good for the economy and it’s how we make the NHS financially sustainable.”
The government won praise from campaigners for moving quickly to implement the ban on HFSS advertising that was repeatedly kicked down the road by the Conservatives, however ministers will face pressure to go further.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week, national food strategy author Henry Dimbleby restated his support for mandatory reporting of key health indicators by large food businesses in order to create a level playing field and incentivise businesses to sell a greater proportion of healthy products.
Prior to the election, work to develop voluntary (rather than mandatory) health reporting metrics was being led by an industry working group as part of the food data transparency partnership (FDTP) set up by the Conservative government. Labour has yet to confirm how it intends to take forward the work of the FDTP, which also covers environmental data.
Labour is also likely to face pressure to extend the soft drinks industry levy, which has led to a reduction in the amount of sugar consumed from soft drinks. In its submission to the chancellor ahead of her first budget next month, the charity Impact on Urban Health, part of Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, said the Treasury should build on the success of the SDIL and incentivise food and drink manufacturers to reformulate on a wider range of unhealthy products through targeted fiscal measures.
