Junk food ad ban legislation designed to curb childhood obesity has been set out by the Government.

The legislation includes a ban on television junk food ads before 9pm from October 2025.

Secretary of state for health and social care, Wes Streeting, said: ‘This Government is taking action now to end the targeting of junk food ads at kids, across both TV and online. 

‘This is the first step to deliver a major shift in the focus of healthcare from sickness to prevention, and towards meeting our Government's ambition to give every child a healthy, happy start to life.'

Restrictions will also include a ban on paid online junk food adverts to reduce children's excessive exposure to many foods high in fat, sugar, or salt and help to address rising rates of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. 

The legislation is expected to remove 7.2bn calories per year  from children's diets, preventing an estimated 20,000 cases of childhood obesity.

Almost one in 10 (9.2%) reception-aged children are now living with obesity and, by aged five, one in five (23.7%) children have tooth decay because of excess sugar consumption.   

Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association's Community Wellbeing Board, said: ‘We are pleased the Government is to bring in legislation to restrict the advertising of unhealthy foods targeted at children and young people.

‘Childhood obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges we face. However, any efforts to tackle the causes of obesity need to be part of a whole systems approach.

‘Greater powers for councils to tackle the clustering of takeaways and restricting junk food advertising near schools, alongside extra investment council-run programmes such as those promoting physical activity and healthy weight can help play an essential part in helping to curb child obesity.'