Following Government’s ministerial statement signaling its intent to further legislate on aspects of the forthcoming restrictions on advertising of “less healthy” food and drink products, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), as designated frontline co-regulator, has asked the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) to place on hold its ongoing consultation on implementation rules and guidance. This is to allow for a proper assessment of the implications of Government’s decision, as further detail becomes available, and to determine how best to take the implementation process forward.  

The ASA will continue to work with Ofcom and Government to understand the implications of developments, and keep stakeholders updated when more is known about the way forward.  

Background to CAP’s ongoing consultation 

The rules being consulted on ban ads for “identifiable” less healthy food and drink products (LHF) from being:  

• included in Ofcom-regulated TV services between 5:30am and 9:00pm; 

• included in Ofcom-regulated on-demand programme services (“ODPS”) between 5:30am and 9:00pm; and 
• placed in paid-for space in online media at any time. 

 Ofcom is the statutory body responsible and has appointed the ASA as its frontline advertising co-regulator. CAP has been conducting a consultation process on aspects of the implementation of the new restrictions at the ASA's request; most significantly, it has been developing guidance to help affected businesses comply with the new framework.  

In February 2025, CAP published a further consultation seeking to address significant legal interpretation issues arising from the evaluation of responses to the 2023 consultation. It is this further consultation that has been put on hold.  

Ministerial statement on the restrictions 

On 22 May 2025, Government issued a ministerial statement stating that it will introduce further legislation to explicitly exempt ‘brand advertising’ from the scope of the LHF restrictions. They also announced the intention to lay legislation to change the coming into force date of the restrictions to 5 January 2026 (this legislation was laid before Parliament on 3 June 2025). 

Impact on CAP’s ongoing consultation process 

With the agreement of Ofcom, the ASA considers developments set out in the ministerial statement are significant, given that the rules and guidance must reflect the law (including any changes to it) CAP must therefore put on hold its consultation (launched in February 2025). Although the detail of how Government proposes to amend the law is not yet known, it will obviously have a material impact on the ASA’s rules and guidance – both of which will need to appropriately reflect the new legislation.  

CAP’s agreement to place the work on hold will allow for this impact to be properly assessed. This will include addressing how the further consultation will be concluded, and considering the extent to which further revised rules and guidance need to be developed and consulted on through a new consultation process.  

The ASA and CAP remain focused on the aim of delivering new rules and guidance in line with the legislation. The ASA will continue to work with Government, and Ofcom, in the coming weeks to fully understand developments and what steps need to be taken to respond effectively. We will provide a further update to stakeholders in the coming weeks, when we know more about how the process will unfold.  

Separately to the ASA and CAP’s work, advertisers and media owners have agreed voluntarily not to run in the restricted media ads for “specific identifiable less healthy food or drink products (i.e. adverts that explicitly feature or refer to specific less healthy food or drink products)” from 1 October, the originally envisaged implementation date. During this period (up to 5 January 2026), the ASA will not process or investigate complaints about ads that may or may not run contrary to restrictions on less healthy food drink products as it is unable to enforce rules until the law is in place.

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