As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will take decisive action on the obesity crisis, easing the strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The plan committed to, by the end of this Parliament, introduce mandatory healthier food sales reporting for all large companies in the sector. The plan also committed to introduce new targets to increase the healthiness of sales.

We intend to launch a full public consultation soon to gather a wide range of views on our proposals.

Specific implementation dates will be determined following consultation, and the intention is that the policy will be finalised and legislation laid so that reporting comes into force before the end of this Parliament, no later than 2029.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will take decisive action on the obesity crisis, easing the strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The plan committed to, by the end of this Parliament, introduce mandatory healthier food sales reporting for all large companies in the sector. The plan also committed to introduce new targets to increase the healthiness of sales.

We intend to launch a full public consultation soon to gather a wide range of views on our proposals.

Specific implementation dates will be determined following consultation, and the intention is that the policy will be finalised and legislation laid so that reporting comes into force before the end of this Parliament, no later than 2029.

The Government is taking decisive action on obesity, easing the strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever.

As part of this, we will fulfil our commitment to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children aged under 16 years old, introducing the ban within this Parliament.

We ran a 12-week consultation, which was open from 3 September 2025 to 26 November 2025. The Department is currently reviewing all submissions to the consultation and will set out a formal consultation response, and further information on our timelines, in due course.

The Government continues to learn from the implementation of previous age-restricted sales legislation. We recognise the importance of clear guidance, proportionate enforcement arrangements, and ensuring legislation is responsive to evidence, development in products, sales channels, and consumer behaviour.

Any future age of sale measures for energy drinks will be designed with these considerations in mind. We are reviewing consultation responses and will set out next steps in due course. The consultation specifically asked for views on our proposals for how the age restrictions will be enforced and its impact on local government.

Decisions on resourcing and enforcement will be taken alongside wider policy design and parliamentary scrutiny.

The Government continues to learn from the implementation of previous age-restricted sales legislation. We recognise the importance of clear guidance, proportionate enforcement arrangements, and ensuring legislation is responsive to evidence, development in products, sales channels, and consumer behaviour.

Any future age of sale measures for energy drinks will be designed with these considerations in mind. We are reviewing consultation responses and will set out next steps in due course. The consultation specifically asked for views on our proposals for how the age restrictions will be enforced and its impact on local government.

Decisions on resourcing and enforcement will be taken alongside wider policy design and parliamentary scrutiny.

The new NHS Quality Strategy will build on the 10-Year Health Plan and Dr Penny Dash’s review of patient safety across the health and care landscape. The 10-Year Health Plan commits to using sharper financial incentives to deliver value and improve outcomes. We expect the NHS Quality Strategy will reference, alongside other interventions, how the Department and NHS England will develop these incentives to ensure they drive high quality care across the National Health Service.

NHS England is delivering a comprehensive programme to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of people with kidney disease. In 2023, NHS England published a renal services transformation toolkit to support earlier identification of chronic kidney disease and more joined up services. These changes are intended to make it easier to deliver improvements along the whole patient pathway, including earlier diagnosis and treatment, that can potentially prevent or delay the need for dialysis and transplant further downstream in the pathway.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing clinical guidance and quality standards. NICE’s guidance on chronic kidney disease includes guidance on the use of annual urine albumin-creatine ratio tests as the preferred method to detect and monitor kidney disease. The guidance is available on the NICE website.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a strategy in March 2025 setting out a collective ambition for improving uptake and adoption of NICE guidance by the health and care system over the next three years. The strategy aims to improve the uptake and adoption of NICE guidance in priority areas which align with the National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan by 10% by March 2029. This includes guidance on cardiovascular disease and diabetes, further details on which can be found on the NICE website.

In 2023, NHS England published a renal services transformation toolkit to support earlier identification of chronic kidney disease and more joined up services. Eight commissioned regional renal clinical networks are implementing this toolkit, in collaboration with providers. The regional networks are designed to improve care for kidney patients by standardizing treatment, reducing health inequalities, and promoting best practices, including for medical therapy use, across hospitals, commissioners, and specialists.

The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 prohibits any advertisements whose purpose or effect is to promote a tobacco product. The Advertising Standards Authority’s rules state that marketing communications for cigarette filters should not encourage people to start smoking or increase their consumption.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill restates the restrictions on the advertising of tobacco products. We have no current plans to introduce additional restrictions on the advertising of filters through the bill.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency publish the proportion of nursing entrants to undergraduate courses that are no longer in higher education. The following table shows the proportion of United Kingdom domiciled undergraduate nursing entrants who are no longer in higher education 2019/20. The rates in will not include students that have transferred to a course in another subject. Non-continuation rates are not available at the level of specific nursing professions.

Source: The Higher Education Statistics Agency Non-continuation rates 2022.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) continues to monitor COVID-19 epidemiology and evaluate data from the United Kingdom and globally in order to provide advice to the Government on potential vaccination programmes. However, as this is an ongoing process, we are unable to confirm a specific timetable.

The minutes of the JCVI’s meetings, where advice to the Government is discussed, is published in an online only format at GOV.UK.

The United Kingdom has received sufficient supply of vaccines to meet the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s current advice for the autumn booster vaccination programme. This includes Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, with Novavax where no other UK-approved COVID-19 vaccine is deemed clinically suitable. These vaccines, which the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved for use in the UK, are currently in deployment.

The majority of the Government’s contracts with developers contain flexibilities to ensure that the UK can receive updated vaccines being produced, including the recently regulated bivalent mRNA vaccines, which provide broader protection against variants and variant-specific vaccines. We remain in regular contact with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the future supply of vaccines to the UK.

The United Kingdom’s national immunisation programmes are co-ordinated to improve access at general practices, clinics and pharmacies through working with stakeholders. NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are working with regional teams on communications to support higher vaccine uptake, including under-served communities; people with long term health conditions; and pregnant women. Those eligible for COVID-19 and flu vaccines include people over 50 years old, health and social care workers and those aged from six months for flu and five years old for COVID-19 in the relevant clinical risk groups. The flu vaccine is also being offered to healthy children aged two to 11 years old and some secondary school children.

From 5 September to 17 October 2022, over 8.5 million COVID-19 autumn booster doses have been administered in England. We are ensuring that COVID-19 vaccination appointments being offered 3,100 sites, including more than 1,680 community pharmacies and 80 hospital hubs.

We will set out further details about measures on weight management later in the year.

Through the new obesity strategy, published on 27 July, we are delivering a range of measures on weight management including a National Health Service 12-week weight loss plan app, expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need, accelerating the expansion of the NHS diabetes prevention programme and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year and we will engage stakeholders throughout this process.

A copy of Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives is attached.

We are committed to reducing obesity. The National Child Measurement Programme and Health Survey for England provide prevalence data which will be important in understanding the levels of obesity in England. Importantly, alongside reports such as the National Diet and Nutrition Survey which enables us to measure changes to the population’s diet, we will also be putting in place evaluation of our legislative action so we can understand its impact.

Government departments work very closely on reducing obesity and have shared responsibility in delivering these policies.

We are committed to reducing obesity. The National Child Measurement Programme and Health Survey for England provide prevalence data which will be important in understanding the levels of obesity in England. Importantly, alongside reports such as the National Diet and Nutrition Survey which enables us to measure changes to the population’s diet, we will also be putting in place evaluation of our legislative action so we can understand its impact.

Government departments work very closely on reducing obesity and have shared responsibility in delivering these policies.

Through the new obesity strategy, published on 27 July, we are delivering a range of measures on weight management including a National Health Service 12-week weight loss plan app, expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need, accelerating the expansion of the NHS diabetes prevention programme and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year and we will engage stakeholders throughout this process.

A copy of Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives is attached.