Parliamentary reaction to the announcement and implementation of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy: applied thematic analysis of 2016-2020 parliamentary debates.
Public Health Nutrition 2024
Jones CP, Lawlor ER, Forde H, Theis DRZ, Cummins S, Adams J, Smith R, Rayner M, Rutter H, Penney TL, Alliot O, Armitage S, White M
DOI : 10.1017/S1368980024000247
PubMed ID : 38263748
PMCID :
Abstract
The UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) (announced March 2016; implemented April 2018) aims to incentivise reformulation of soft drinks to reduce added sugar levels. The SDIL has been applauded as a policy success, and it has survived calls from parliamentarians for it to be repealed. We aimed to explore parliamentary reaction to the SDIL following its announcement until two years post-implementation in order understand how health policy can become established and resilient to opposition.
Searches of Hansard for parliamentary debate transcripts that discussed the SDIL retrieved 186 transcripts, with 160 included after screening. Five stages of Applied Thematic Analysis were conducted: familiarisation and creation of initial codebooks; independent second coding; codebook finalisation through team consensus; final coding of the dataset to the complete codebook; and theme finalisation through team consensus.
The United Kingdom Parliament.
N/A.
Between the announcement (16/03/2016) - royal assent (26/04/2017) two themes were identified Between royal assent - implementation (5/04/2018) one theme was identified The final theme identified from implementation until 16/03/2020 was .
After the announcement, the SDIL had cross-party support and was recognised to have encouraged reformulation prior to implementation. Lessons for governments indicate that the combination of cross-party support and a policy's documented success in achieving its aim can help cement the resilience of it to opposition and threats of repeal.