Nigel Griffiths - Labour MP

Question: How effective are current regulations on the advertising of junk food to children?

Griffiths: The latest restriction on advertising to children - which is that any children's programmes targeted at people under the age of 16 cannot carry adverts from food companies that are marketing junk food - has only just come in; so it's a little too soon to see how effective they're going to be.

My worry is that Ofcom, who are responsible for regulating this, have made it clear that only a minority of children will be affected by this because they watch programmes that their older brothers and sisters and adults watch - family viewing in the evening. That is presently not covered by these regulations.
 
We're facing a complete crisis over obesity in this country and it's not just me who's saying that it's the government special advisers, the Foresight team, that produced a report last October which basically compared the problem of obesity with that of climate change.

The majority of this present generation of children are going to be overweight by the time they hit their teens or late teens. That is just too terrible to contemplate, not just in terms of their personal health and wellbeing, but of course, the bill for the National Health Service, and the costs of them not being able to work because of being overweight are all going to be too much for society to bear.

Question: What kind of restrictions does your Bill propose?

Griffiths: My Bill proposes setting a 9 o'clock watershed for any advertising or marketing on terrestrial TV, satellite TV and even the internet. It will make sure that companies cannot target children or anyone before 9 o'clock in the evening with foods that are recognised by the Food Standards Agency as being high in fat, sugar and salt, some of them at dangerous levels.

Question: Some people have argued that a pre-watershed ban would mislead the public into thinking there was a 'quick fix' solution to the problems of child obesity. How would you respond to these concerns?

Griffiths: What all the backers of my Bill say - including, of course, the British Medical Association, the National Union of Teachers and all the major health voluntary organisations - is that this is one of a number of measures that needs to be taken.

There is no magic solution to this but frankly, we would not legislate on advertising at our peril because that is one of the most single effective ways that companies use to make sure that people buy their products.

We don't seek to ban advertising per se, what we want to do is to encourage companies to produce products and to market products that are healthy and there are plenty of those on the market.

Question: Ofcom has estimated that a pre-watershed ban could cost the advertising industry over £200m a year in lost revenues. Are you at all worried about the impact on the advertising industry?

Griffiths: Well I just don't accept that because there's only a finite number of hours on television or a finite number of billboards and therefore, there's plenty of evidence at the moment of where the public have forced  companies to go from unhealthy to healthier foods then the marketing goes on the healthier foods.

That's all I want to achieve. We don't seek to ban advertising per se, what we want to do is encourage companies to produce and market products that are healthy and there are plenty of those on the market. So I don't accept what Ofcom says - I think their figures are deeply flawed.

Question: What else can be done to tackle the obesity crisis and improve children's diets?

Griffiths: I think that we have to encourage healthy eating at every stage and that's why I'm in favour of ensuring that every child has a school meal. Universal free school meals are very good for driving out the junk foods and introducing children where their not introduced at home to good and healthy eating.

I recognise, of course, that parents have a prime responsibility on this but when you've got so many irresponsible parents, then society has to move in and do what it can to help.