Speeches by Beales.

“Do you think those loopholes should be closed?”

“Would you be happy to share data on the level of promotion of those sorts of products at end of aisle and checkouts? Thank you; that is very helpful. In terms of broader future changes, do you have any views about whether the application of an updated nutrient profiling model through these regulations would be a good t…”

“Okay. This is why I wanted a yes or no answer, but what do the systems in place to ensure compliance look like? Maybe one or two of you could answer that question.”

“How often do those sorts of checks of stores take place by regional or central management?”

“What was the effect that you saw?”

“I will move on. Are you confident that your stores are fully compliant with the regulations? Yes or no?”

“Just yes or no. There are other questions to come.”

“Apologies, I do not want to be rude, but the question is: yes or no, are you fully compliant? You do not have to answer if you do feel uncomfortable.”

“Has anyone else noticed any impact from the regulations? Is there anything particularly you want to add? You do not have to, but is there anything you want to add on data or impact?”

“So why don’t you do that? If you have policies that are far more effective than the policy that has been introduced in driving that sort of change, why don’t you do that? That would remove the problems we are talking about today.”

“Do follow up on that data if you are unable to answer that question. The other suggestion is that there are loopholes in the regulations because a number of goods are not included—for example, unpackaged baked goods and party food products—and they are increasingly being promoted at checkouts and aisle ends. Has there …”

“Do you have any data around the level of reformulation that you saw?”

“I find it strange that this issue is being checked every day, but you are not confident about compliance—no one can say, “Yes, we’re confident that the regulations are being followed.””

“Okay. I will move on. It has been suggested to us that there are ways of getting around the regulations, so perhaps the letter of the law is being followed, but not the spirit. For instance, supermarkets might have new promotional central sections of aisles or more digital advertising screens. Do any of you recognise t…”

“What about the other supermarkets?”

“I accept that that might be compliant with the current legislation, but the question is: is it compliant with the spirit of the law? Has your practice changed? Do your supermarkets now have more promotional central sections of aisles that would have previously been at the end of them?”

“How regular would those visits be? What is regular?”

“But that was not the question. Sorry to cut you off, but that really was not the question that was asked. All of you as supermarkets advertise products on TV and online. Are you saying that you have no evidence, formally or informally, that the large amount of money you spend on TV time and physical media does or does …”

“Sorry to cut across you, but the data we have seen—research from the nutrition and lifestyle analytics team at the University of Leeds—suggested to us that the changes led to the equivalent of 2 million fewer in-scope HFSS products sold per day across England. That would be 730 million fewer HFSS products sold. Do you …”

“The question is about the promotional sections of aisles that use colourful yellow branding or whatever your chosen method is. They would have been at the end of aisles previously, but now that that is restricted, have you moved them to the middle of aisles? Are there more of those central sections now than prior to th…”