Junk food TV advertisements are to be banned from airing before the 9pm watershed as part of the government’s drive to improve public health.

In addition, online ads for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar will be banned altogether, Andrew Gwynne, the public health minister, told the Commons on Thursday. Both measures will come into force on 1 October 2025.

Health campaigners welcomed the move as an overdue restriction on firms’ ability to bombard children with ads for their unhealthy food and drink products.

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The previous, Conservative government pledged to bring in the TV watershed ban from January 2023. But a month before its introduction, Rishi Sunak decided to delay it until 2025, prompting a wave of criticism that he had put the interests of big business ahead of improving children’s health.