The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 and the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021 have not demanded many column inches in The MJ. They provide an interesting case study in how Government departments fund new burdens, even where the assessed costs are modest. The Department of Health and Social Care provided £1883 for each unitary and district council in January in respect of calorie labelling and promotions, part of the Government's commitment to tackle the childhood obesity crisis.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) set off on the same track in providing new burdens funding for the introduction of weekly food waste collections: £295m of capital funding for purchasing vehicles and containers in 2024, followed by tens of millions of pounds in transitional revenue funding in 2024-25 and 2025-26 for activities such as delivery of containers and publicity. The formulae for distributing the capital and revenue funding were developed in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme.
