UK Government’s consulting on a potential ban on high-caffeine energy drinks for under-16s in England

Date: 26th September 2025
Category: Nutrition, Health and health services

---

The UG Government is currently consulting on a ban that would prevent the sale of energy drinks (those with more than 150mg of caffeine per litre) to anyone under the age of 16. The ban would apply across all retailers including shops, cafes, restaurants, vending machines and online retailers. This potential ban is aimed at protecting children’s physical and mental health and would impact well-known brands like Red Bull, Monster and Prime. This consultation is open until the 26th of November 2025.

Evidence cited by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education points to a range of harms associated with children’s regular consumption of these drinks such as disrupted sleep, increased anxiety, reduced concentration and adverse effects on behaviour. Furthermore, commissioned data on children’s consumption of high-caffeine energy drinks from the Department for Education (DfE), Parent, pupil and learner voice: omnibus surveys for 2024 to 2025, was consistent with other research findings.

Internationally, UNICEF’s new report Feeding Profit: How food environments are failing children, the global rise in obesity among school-age children and adolescents has now overtaken underweight for the first time. The report also highlights how ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks are aggressively marketed and widely available, often cheaper than healthier alternatives, while effective policies to protect children remain weak or inconsistent.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has already called on the UK to take stronger action. In its 2023 Concluding Observations, it recommended that governments:

• hold businesses accountable for the health and rights impacts of their activities,
• strengthen measures to tackle child malnutrition, food insecurity and obesity, and
• ensure all children have access to nutritious food, regardless of their background.

The Scottish Government consulted on this issue in 2019 but decided in 2023 not to introduce mandatory restrictions, instead relying on voluntary measures and education through Curriculum for Excellence. This position was set out in the Scottish Government’s initial response to the Concluding Observations published in March 2024. If the UK Government now takes forward a ban, this could provide an important opportunity for the Scottish Government to revisit its position.
Together will continue to monitor how these commitments develop across the UK to ensure that children’s right to the highest attainable standard of health, and to nutritious food, are upheld.

·       Read UNICEF’s Feeding Profit: How food environments are failing children report.

·       Find out more about the parent, pupil and learner voice: omnibus surveys for 2024 to 2025

·       Read UNICEF’s report here.