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Since May, the UK has had a Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government. In its first few months of office it has proposed radical cuts to public spending and a pro-market approach in health reforms. In November, the Guardian revealed that the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, had invited the major food companies to help him write health policy on obesity. Asking them to identify priorities and barriers, such as EU legislation, that they would like removed. Lansley has assured companies that he wants to explore voluntary not regulatory approaches. 

For those of us seeking to strengthen rather than weaken legislation on marketing this is a worrying time. However, we are holding on to the fact that the Coalition Programme for Government does promise to ‘crackdown on irresponsible marketing,’ to ‘promote public health,’ to ‘protect consumers’ and to ‘tackle health inequalities’. Also, the Liberal Democrats (like the Greens) have officially signed up to the Nestlé Boycott and to the demands of the Baby Feeding Law Group (BFLG) and the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition (BMC) - namely to fully implement the International Code and WHA Resolutions (see press release). 

The obesity programme, Change4Life (C4L), set up by the previous Labour Government, had an off-spring called Start4Life (S4L) which covered infant feeding. In response to our lobby, and unlike C4L, S4L did not have corporate sponsors so its messages were not weakened. 

In July Lansley asked Nestlé, Pepsi, Coca Cola and others to increase funding to C4L.  In September, we heard that S4L might also have to have corporate sponsors. BFLG and BMC - representing over 40 health professional and lay organisations - including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Royal College of Midwives, wrote to the Department of Health and to Lansley, listing companies that we would find totally unacceptable: any infant feeding, food, tobacco or alcohol company and any company targeting families. We said that companies such as leisure, telecommunications or financial services should be considered only if they are first thoroughly checked for bad social practices and monitored on an ongoing basis. 

We reminded the Government of its obligations under the International Code, the WHA Resolutions and the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding to provide objective, evidence-based information on infant and young child feeding and most of all to avoid conflicts of interest.  Baby Milk Action suggested raising funds from junk food, alcohol and tobacco taxes.

The response to us from Lansley’s office, and from Public Health Minister Anne Milton to Annette Brooke MP,  says DH is fully committed to promoting and encouraging breastfeeding and UNICEF’s UK Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation in the NHS, which includes adhering to the International Code. DH also promised to consult BFLG members on any potential S4L sponsors.

STOP PRESS: Breastfeeding at work

As we go to press a new White Paper Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our strategy for public health in England is published. This highlights the need to increase UK breastfeeding rates, which at 46.2% at 6-8 weeks, are among the lowest in Europe. The White Paper states that:

“The Department of Health will work in partnership with employers to encourage breastfeeding-friendly employment policies, through pilots involving an acute NHS trust, over 300 children’s centres in areas with low breastfeeding rates, a primary school and a secondary school.”

This is a welcome move, although nothing is said about the Review of the formula marketing regulations sitting in Lansley’s in tray. And of course what women really need is the protection of the ILO Maternity Protection Convention (C103) -  the legal right to breastfeeding breaks which is under discussion in the European Parliament and common in European and more than 90 countries worldwide.

In the UK the majority of women give up breastfeeding long before they want to and before they return to work, because they failed to get the right advice and support (all affected by marketing). Of those still breastfeeding between six and nine months, over 20% cited return to work as the reason for stopping breastfeeding. Only 14% of employers offered facilities to express milk. Ref: UK Infant Feeding Survey (2005).

Also see: www.ibfan.org/fact-maternity.html

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