The newly appointed Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, is set to recuse herself from key policy decisions due to her husband’s senior role at one of the UK’s largest sugar and medical cannabis companies.
i understands that Ms Atkins will defer policy on obesity and medical cannabis to junior ministers to avoid any conflict of interest because of her husband Paul Kenward, who is chief executive of ABF Sugar.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed that Ms Atkins will “recuse herself on departmental issues relating to outside interests”.
ABF Sugar is one of the UK’s largest sugar producers and also owns the nation’s largest legal cannabis farm in Norfolk.
Maria Caulfield, the minister for mental health and the women’s health strategy, is likely to take on the obesity brief given her previous experience in Government policy on the issue, i understands.
Either Andrea Leadsom or Andrew Stephenson, who joined the DHSC following Monday’s reshuffle, will likely take the lead on decisions around medical cannabis licensing, production and NHS prescriptions given other ministers already have full briefs.
ABF Sugar owns British Sugar, which produces Silver Spoon, and is a subsidiary of FTSE-100 group Associated British Foods (ABF). It has regularly lobbied the Government against the introduction of sugar taxes to help the UK conquer a growing obesity crisis.
Ahead of the introduction of the Government levy on soft drinks containing added sugar in 2018, Mr Kenward, whose company produces around two thirds of the UK’s quota of sugar, claimed the solution to obesity was a more “complex issue” than cutting sugar consumption.
Professor Graham MacGregor, chairman of Action on Sugar and a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, said: “It is clear that there is a potential conflict for the new Health Secretary. There is some concern around her appointment, to put it mildly.
“So far, the Government has not played a great role in preventative medicine, and obviously preventing things like obesity by reducing sugar in our diets is, in the long term, far more effective than just treating conditions when they occur. So, we will be watching the new Secretary of State’s position very closely.”
Asked about the potential conflicts of interest facing Ms Atkins, the DHSC said: “As she has done in previous ministerial roles, the Secretary of State will recuse herself on departmental issues relating to outside interests, all of which have been declared to the House and under the Ministerial Code.”
In her previous role as drugs minister in the Home Office in 2018, Ms Atkins voluntarily excused herself from policy or decisions relating to cannabis, including medical licensing, due to her husband’s role.
A spokesman for the Medcan Family Foundation, which campaigns for wider access to medical cannabis products to help children with complex neurological disorders including epilepsy, raised concerns following Ms Atkins’ appointment as Health Secretary.
“The issue of access to medical cannabis is a critical issue for families battling this chronic neurological condition and now we have a Secretary of State who cannot tackle this head on.
“The epilepsy community would be seeking urgent reassurances from Government that efforts to address this issue are not going to stall because of her appointment.”
In 2017, British Sugar made a donation in kind for four nights’ hotel accommodation to Ms Atkins, then a Home Office minister, during the Conservative Party conference, according to her submission to Parliament’s list of MP’s interests. The hotel room, valued at £1,120, was occupied by her and her husband.
Mr Kenward’s company, which has an annual capacity to produce 4.5 million tonnes of sugar across 20 plants in nine countries, has also successfully lobbied the UK Government to use bee-killing pesticides on his sugar beet farms.
ABF Sugar, which recorded sales of £19.75bn in 2022, declined to comment on whether Mr Kenward would continue to lobby the Government in his role as chief executive of the company.
It also declined to comment on whether the company was in talks on any potential contracts with the Government.
