From today (5 January), adverts for less healthy food and drinks will be banned on television before 9pm, and online at all times.

The move is expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children's diets each year, reduce the number of children living with obesity by 20,000 and deliver around £2bn in health benefits over time.

Minister for health, Ashley Dalton, said: ‘We promised to do everything we can to give every child the best and healthiest start in life.

‘By restricting adverts for junk food before 9pm and banning paid adverts online, we can remove excessive exposure to unhealthy foods - making the healthy choice the easy choice for parents and children.

‘We're moving the dial from having the NHS treat sickness, to preventing it so people can lead healthier lives and so it can be there for us when we need it.'

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Cllr Dr Wendy Taylor, chair of the Local Government Association's Health and Wellbeing Committee, said: ‘This is a positive step towards creating healthier environments for children and tackling childhood obesity.

‘Childhood obesity remains one of the most significant public health challenges we face, driving health inequalities and placing a significant cost burden on the NHS and wider society. These measures are an important part of a whole systems approach, alongside local action to improve access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity.'

Alice Wiseman, vice-president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said: ‘There is no quick fix, but we know from our experience of tackling tobacco harm, that one of the key ways to reduce illness and death caused by harmful products is to introduce tighter restrictions on advertising those products. 

‘There is of course further to go, but today's legislation is a significant and welcome step forward in protecting people from industry influence and reducing the number of people living with – and dying from – preventable illness and disease.'

Katharine Jenner, executive director at Obesity Health Alliance, said: ‘It's been one battle after another, but we are finally going to see children being protected from the worst offending junk food adverts. This is a welcome and long-awaited step towards better protecting children from unhealthy food and drink advertising that can harm their health and wellbeing. These new restrictions will help reduce children's exposure to the most problematic adverts and mark real progress towards a healthier food environment.

'For the government to achieve its ambition of raising the healthiest generation ever, this is an important policy as part of a broader approach to preventing obesity-related ill health. Continuing to strengthen the rules over time will help ensure these protections remain effective.'