Select Committee urges NPM 2018 in by end of 2027

The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has published its report Healthy Ageing: Tackling Obesity, setting out an ambitious package of recommendations aimed at reducing obesity and creating healthier food environments across the UK.

While Select Committees do not make government policy, they play an important role in scrutinising government and shaping future policy debate. Through inquiries, evidence gathering and cross-party recommendations, their reports often provide an indication of the direction Parliament believes government should take.

For the food industry, this report is notable not only for the breadth of its recommendations, but for the pace at which the Committee believes change should happen. It also provides one of the clearest parliamentary statements in recent years on the future direction of UK food policy, and it’s bold!

The Committee's starting point is clear: obesity remains one of the UK's most significant preventable health challenges, and stronger government intervention is now required to improve population diets. Rather than proposing a series of isolated policy changes, the report sets out a fundamentally different vision for improving population health, one where government acts more quickly, regulates more confidently and places less reliance on voluntary action to deliver change.

Perhaps most significantly, the Committee also recommends changing how future food policy is developed, proposing that businesses deriving a significant proportion of sales from less healthy products should be excluded from policy development discussions, while continuing to engage on the practical implementation of regulation once policy decisions have been made.

Five key takeaways for the food industry

1. An ambitious timetable for reform

One of the defining features of the report is not simply what it recommends, but how quickly the Committee believes change should happen. Across nutrient profiling, mandatory reporting, front-of-pack labelling, reformulation and wider public health policy, the report argues that government should move decisively and avoid further delays.

Timing		Recommendation
As soon as possible		Implement Mandatory Health Reporting.
As soon as possible		Publish the preferred approach to calculating free sugars and progress implementation of NPM 2018.
Within 3 months		Launch a national Healthy Start awareness campaign.
By January 2027	Update promotion and placement regulations to require prominent placement of fruit and vegetables and strengthen online promotion rules.
Within 6 months		Remove barriers preventing retailers from offering Healthy Start top-ups.
Within 12 months		Introduce mandatory healthy sales targets for supermarkets.
Within 12 months		Publish a plan to enable Healthy Start auto-enrolment.
By the end of 2027		Implement the 2018 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM 2018).
By January 2028		Introduce mandatory front-of-pack traffic light nutrition labelling.
Within 18 months		Publish proposals to improve the healthiness of food sold in the out-of-home sector and via delivery platforms.
By the end of this Parliament		Extend mandatory healthy sales targets across the wider food industry.
Ongoing		Review Healthy Start voucher values annually and review the Nutrient Profiling Model every 10 years.

 

Taken together, these recommendations outline an ambitious programme of reform that extends well beyond individual policy measures.

2. NPM 2018 should be implemented by the end of 2027

Perhaps the report's strongest immediate recommendation relates to implementation of the 2018 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM), which underpins a number of government policies designed to improve diets.

The Committee concludes:

"We were unconvinced by the evidence we received from the supermarkets regarding their concerns about the updated nutrient profiling model."

It notes that although an updated model was developed in 2018, it has still not been implemented, leaving important regulation based on a model that is now more than two decades old.

The Committee recommends that NPM 2018 should be implemented ‘as soon as possible, and certainly no later than by the end of 2027’, adding:

"The government will hear a lot of representations against this but should hold firm. While we are aware of the debate around free sugars, we do not believe that it should be allowed to delay implementing the 2018 model further."

The timing of this is significant as industry await the consultation response on applying an updated nutrient profiling model (NPM 2018) to existing HFSS advertising and placement legislation in England.

The committee also recommends establishing a regular review cycle, suggesting the NPM should be reviewed every ten years to reflect evolving scientific evidence while providing greater certainty for industry.

Although the Committee does not explicitly link NPM 2018 to Mandatory Health Reporting, the two policies are becoming increasingly connected. Government is expected to publish its consultation on Mandatory Health Reporting after the summer recess, with NPM 2018 widely expected to underpin the proposed reporting framework. For businesses, progress on one policy is therefore likely to influence the other, making this one of the most significant recommendations in the report.

3. Reformulation remains central to improving population diets

The Committee acknowledges the progress many businesses have made in reformulating products but concludes that voluntary action alone has not delivered sufficient improvements.

Its recommendations include expanding the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, increasing support for SMEs to reformulate, strengthening incentives for innovation and reviewing wider approaches to reducing sugar, salt and calories across the food supply.

Rather than viewing reformulation as a standalone policy, the report positions it as one component of a broader package of interventions designed to improve population diets.

4. Mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling moves further up the agenda

The Committee recommends introducing mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling using the existing traffic light format by January 2028.

It argues that the current scheme is well recognised by consumers and that mandatory adoption would improve consistency across the market while supporting healthier purchasing decisions.

The report also recommends that the labelling scheme should continue to evolve alongside future updates to nutrient profiling and emerging scientific evidence.

While a consultation on mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling closed in 2020, the Government has yet to publish its response or move forward on mandating a scheme. The Committee's recommendation may increase expectations that this consultation response will return to the agenda alongside wider nutrition policy reforms.

5. A significant shift in the Committee's view of industry's role in policymaking

Perhaps the report's most significant recommendation for the future relates not to a specific policy, but to how future food policy should be developed.

The Committee concludes that health policy has too often been delayed or diluted following representations from parts of the food industry, stating that governments have "consistently chosen to put those interests ahead of health interests."

It recommends that businesses deriving more than a defined proportion of sales from less healthy products, and industry associations that represent them, should be excluded from discussions on the development of food, diet and obesity policy.

Instead, the Committee recommends that industry engagement should focus on the practical implementation of regulation once policy decisions have been taken, with full transparency and clear rules governing those interactions.

This represents a notable shift in the Committee's thinking about the balance between collaboration and independence in public health policymaking and signals a stronger emphasis on separating policy development from policy implementation.

Why this matters

Taken individually, many of the Committee's recommendations build on existing policy discussions. Mandatory front-of-pack labelling, implementation of NPM 2018, Mandatory Health Reporting, reformulation, advertising restrictions and healthier food environments have all been debated over recent years.

However, the report is significant because it brings these policies together within a single, coherent vision for a healthier food system. It argues that progress has been too slow and calls for faster implementation, stronger regulation and less reliance on voluntary approaches to improve population diets.

For businesses, the report should not be viewed as new regulation. Select Committees do not create policy, and the Government is not obliged to accept every recommendation. Nevertheless, the report provides an important indication of parliamentary thinking and the types of measures that may influence future government policy.

What happens next?

The Committee's recommendations are not binding, and it remains the responsibility of the UK Government to determine which proposals it chooses to adopt. The Government must now publish a formal response, setting out whether it accepts, rejects or intends to take forward each recommendation.

Several recommendations also align closely with policy developments expected over the coming months. Businesses should therefore monitor:

• The anticipated consultation on Mandatory Health Reporting, expected after the summer recess.

• Government decisions on implementing NPM 2018, including publication of its preferred approach to calculating free sugars.

• Any renewed progress towards mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling.

• Future proposals relating to reformulation, fiscal incentives and the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.

• The Government's formal response to the Committee's recommendations.

While it remains to be seen which recommendations are ultimately adopted, the report provides one of the clearest indications in recent years of the direction many policymakers believe UK food policy should take. For retailers and manufacturers, it reinforces the importance of preparing for a policy landscape characterised by greater regulation, increased transparency and an accelerated focus on improving the populations diet.