Darzi report could push Labour to regulate beyond HFSS

Lord Ara Darzi’s report on the shocking health of our NHS has dominated the headlines today. This was probably much to the relief of Tesco, whose fire and rehire defeat in the Supreme Court was overshadowed.

It may also provide momentary relief for the rest of the food industry, which escaped the majority of the media reaction to the report. Instead, the focus was on the alarming findings in the NHS and the extent to which radical, systemic change is needed.

Yet there is a killer line in Darzi’s investigation that could prove a game-changer for the industry, following years of rowbacks on public health policy under the Conservatives.

On page 65, Darzi turns his focus away from the need for fundamental reform of the organisation of the health service, and on to the question of health promotion and regulation.

The cancer surgeon, who served as health minister under Gordon Brown, claims the prolific backtracking and u-turns of the previous government have contributed the childhood obesity crisis. Astonishingly, one in three children is obese by the age of 11 in the UK’s poorest communities.

‘Bold action needed’

Darzi contrasts governmental inaction on food to the plethora of smoking interventions, including a ban on on-pack marketing and more recent proposals to forbid smoking in outdoor public areas.

“Bold action has been sorely lacking on obesity and regulation of the food industry,” says the report.

“This means that childhood obesity rates for 10 to 11-year-olds have risen and inactivity rates in adults have remained constant. As we have seen, the prevalence of diabetes has increased from 5.1% prevalence in 2008 to 7.5% in 2022 as a result of this inaction.”

Unsurprisingly, health campaign groups have seized on the line – and it will no doubt form a key plank in the pressure they are piling on the new Labour government to be tough on food businesses. 

National Food Strategy author Henry Dimbleby is one backer of that tough approach. The report made clear the time had come for regulation, he told The Grocer today.

Read more: Henry Dimbleby takes National Food Strategy ‘on the road’

Labour has yet to reveal the extent to which it will go after the food industry as a response to Darzi’s review and health minister Wes Streeting’s verdict on inheriting a “broken NHS”.

But today, Streeting kept repeating that problems would not be solved by the government continuing to pump more and more money into the health service. The shift towards prevention should have the industry on full alert, if it isn’t already.

Regulation on the cards?

Sources tell The Grocer they fully expect the new government to unleash a far more interventionist policy, on top of the introduction of a 9pm watershed for HFSS ads and a total ban on junk food ads online. Those measures are subject to a four-week consultation that began today, ahead of the proposed October 2025 start date. 

One source suggests Streeting will accuse the industry of failing to make progress under voluntary measures such as the code set up by the FDF in 2016, which aimed to limit single-serve confectionery products to 250 calories.

Industry sources will no doubt insist huge progress has been made both in reformulation and portion size. But ministers can point to the soft drinks levy as an example of the greater power of regulation.

That, however, does not necessarily mean that the raft of new taxes on the industry suggested by Dimbleby in his 2021 report, on both salt and sugar, will be unleashed by the government.

There are other areas of regulation it can implement first, such as a clampdown on junk food sales and marketing, targeted mainly at the out-of-home sector. It could also introduce mandatory health reporting across the food industry.

But Darzi has stressed the need for “bold” action. So today’s report provides the radicals in the new government with plenty of ammunition for an onslaught on the industry, and one that could have major implications for years to come.