I made the following speech about the introduction of legislation around food supplements in February 2014.
Sir, In order to avoid repetition, I would like to speak both on this piece of legislation and the closely linked legislation on food supplements that follows as the issues are interrelated.
The fact these 2 pieces of legislation are before us today irritates me. Why?
It all sounds so reasonable doesn’t it – Customers will no longer be exposed to false nutrition and health claims, they will no longer be sold food supplements that aren’t what they say they are and the food supplements they do purchase will be safe.
Well, as far as Guernsey is concerned these ordinances serve no other purpose than to have a detrimental effect on both local businesses and local consumers and I will explain why.
Let’s go back to the reason for this legislation in the first place. We are told that the UK was unhappy about certain parties, appearing to operate out of Guernsey, selling food supplements to UK consumers that breached UK rules and they wanted Guernsey to do something about it. These concerns were expressed before the financial crisis in 2008.
Extracts from the UK Hansard in 2009 show that Guernsey authorities had spoken to companies concerned and since that date there appear to have been no concerns raised at Westminster. Yes, there have been issues in the past about breaches of UK Advertising Standards Authority rules, but the companies concerned changed their marketing material years ago now.
Roll on 2011 and the States resolved to have the relevant legislation drawn up to control nutritional claims and restrict what could be put into food supplements and here it is today.
And does it actually make any difference?
No. The problem with this legislation, as with much that is still being produced –is it is not keeping pace with the modern world. What this legislation completely fails to consider is the existence and power of the internet.
You can google any vitamin and mineral used in food supplements and all over the internet you can find how these are meant to benefit you. They may not be on the actual retail sites but various blogs, specialist sites as well as more mainstream online news channels.
So, nutritional claims can’t be made by experienced local retailers on the high street , but they can be by someone without a clue probably paid to post pseudo-scientific articles on their blogs, or through press releases to news channels. Some online retailers even provide a disclaimer on their site saying scientific independent research is for informational use only. Information is provided as a service but not endorsed.
The effect of this legislation is that Guernsey retailers will now have to stick to certain specific statements from the EU Register of Health and Nutrition Claims that frankly might make sense to some scientist in a white coat but for the ordinary man or woman in the street are pretty meaningless. For example, Biotin contributes to normal macronutrient metabolism Choline contributes to normal homocysteine metabolism. Copper contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress
Similarly, there will be some supplements that local consumers will no longer be able to obtain locally . Naturally they will look to the internet and hey presto they can get what they need from all over the world, except round the corner. How can that be better? From being able to talk and discuss their needs with a local business the local consumer is now exposed to any cowboy selling out of the back of a room, or sweatshop, the other side of the world. Isn’t that the reason why the UK wanted us to bring in this legislation in the first place? To protect their consumers from anonymous online retailers?!
And let’s just get back to the real reason for the UK wanting us to bring in this legislation. The truth is back in 2008 was when the Guernsey fulfilment industry was at its peak. The following year saw a 16% drop in mail volumes as the economic downturn began. UK supplement companies were unhappy and this was fed back to Government. Now, 6 years later with LVCR having been abolished, we only have a couple of large players left operating from Guernsey, who, as the Director of Environmental Health has told us are already compliant and won’t be affected by this legislation anyway!
And, why has this this legislation been prioritised? Per the States website there were 12 pages of legislation requiring drafting at 31 December 2013. Spending time on an impotent piece of legislation does not strike me as the best use of valuable law officer time.
I don’t take any food supplements. I think if you have a balanced diet and are generally well, you don’t need them. However, for some local people these products do make a difference. I haven’t heard of any horror stories of how these local people have had adverse reactions to the products they have bought locally. Neither have we heard of a strong campaign locally for this legislation. Quite the opposite in fact. This is unnecessary red tape to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.
The recently released Economic Development Framework includes a workstream to undertake a red tape audit. At C&E we want to reduce the amount of unnecessary legislation that have developed over time and I would like to see all other Departments do the same.
It is for all the above reasons I can’t support either pieces of legislation and urge Members to follow suit.