Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula (England) Regulations 2007

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, for initiating this debate. As my noble friend Lord Avebury indicated, this matter is important not only in this country but internationally. What we do domestically has influence across the world. My noble friend is right: the benefits of promoting breastfeeding are undisputed. All the WHO research shows that to be the case. Every systematic study carried out both here and in the third world has concluded that promoting breastfeeding is in the best interests of the safety and long-term health of children. Yet UK breastfeeding rates at six months are the second lowest in Europe. As my noble friend Lord Avebury said, we have a growing market for infant formula. These regulations have attracted a fair degree of criticism. The Government have tried not only to comply with the European directive and to promote the health and well-being of children but also to take into account some of the points made by the manufacturers. Those are difficult matters to balance. I believe that, originally, the Government sought to give primacy to children’s welfare. I hope that the judicial review to which my noble friend Lord Avebury referred will not weaken the Government’s resolve to go ahead in the way they originally planned. The Government were right to take the view that we do not have to wait until 2010 to implement the directive and that it is in the best interests of children in this country that these regulations should be adopted sooner. Therefore, I hope that the Government do not cave in in the face of the judicial review. As my noble friend Lord Avebury said, it is important that the directive is implemented as soon as possible so that the review can take place and we can gather the evidence that shows whether the regulations are sufficiently strong. The Minister in another place, Dawn Primarolo, promised that such a review would take place. It is important to make sure that those who watch our debates understand that this is not merely some dry, technical Eurocratic matter. This legislation has been debated extensively throughout the European Union. Its purpose is to better protect the health of infants and to ensure that information does not counter the promotion of breastfeeding. That is the key argument. No one is going to suggest that there will never be a need for infant formula. There will always be women who cannot breastfeed, for reasons of illness either of them or of their children. It will always be a necessary product. What is wrong is to advertise it in such a way that one undermines a person’s ability to continue to breastfeed when they can do so. The point is about when information becomes advertising and promotion of a product rather than promotion of health. That is what we are trying to focus on this evening. In many ways, the regulations are a compromise; they do not go as far as they might. We have not gone as far down the line as some of the Scandinavian countries, which have managed to come to an agreement whereby companies have adopted a voluntary ban on advertising of all follow-on formula. As my noble friend Lord Avebury and the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, said, there is a widespread view that follow-on formula is unnecessary and is in fact perhaps unhelpful to families bringing up small children who may be learning for the first time the process of weaning a child on to other foodstuffs. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, is right that in third-world countries there have been instances of child deaths attributable to contamination from other elements used to rehydrate the powders. It is regrettable that in the regulations there is no requirement for there to be clear information about the risk of contamination and advice about how such risk can be avoided by, for example, rehydrating using clean water and sterile vessels. Finally, it is important that women with young babies continue to have access to advice and support about breastfeeding. For those women who experience difficulties and who may start to breastfeed and then for reasons of illness may have to change, it is crucial to their health and that of their children that they have access to helpful midwives and health visitors and that the information should be free from all commercial pressures. That is the absolute bottom line as far as we on these Benches are concerned. Therefore, can the Minister confirm that that would be the effect of the regulations?