Harmful commodities include tobacco, alcohol, less healthy foods, and gambling. In England, local authorities (LAs) can restrict advertising and sponsorship of harmful commodities in their local area. This study examined the presence of local policies for restricting the advertising and sponsorship of harmful commodities. The authors searched for such policy documents across all 333 LAs in England. They found that 32% of LAs had a local policy. But 63% of LAs did not have a local policy, and 5% did not respond. The most common harmful commodity considered was tobacco (91%), followed by gambling (79%), alcohol (74%), and less healthy foods (24%).
The definitions of each harmful commodity varied across policies. But definitions of tobacco and gambling were mostly consistent across policies. Across the nine regions of England, the two most northern regions of England and the East of England had the lowest number of policies per LA. Most policies were found in predominantly urban areas (36%). The most deprived LAs were more likely to have a relevant policy compared to the least deprived LAs (38% vs. 27%). Five of the top 10 most deprived LAs had a policy that covered one or more harmful commodities.
