Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is fully committed to tackling food insecurity and to fulfilling human rights for every member of Scottish society.

The First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership recommended an Act of the Scottish Parliament be developed to provide human rights leadership, supported by a public participatory process and capacity building to ensure its effective implementation.

In response, the First Minister announced the establishment of a National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership which is now considering the recommendations and working to establish a legislative framework for a Scottish Bill of Rights that can bring internationally-recognised human rights into domestic law. The Taskforce will report on its work in 2021.

They are the right group to consider this area, particularly when we are aware there are technical and legal challenges with a statutory right to food which we need to resolve.

The report examines the factors that might transform the retail environment to enable healthier purchasing by consumers. The focus is on the in-store food retail setting and the interactions of consumers and retailers. Specifically the report has two aims: (1) to provide an assessment of the evidence base on retailing practices, generating an overview of how food and drink retailing currently works in Scotland; and (2) to provide recommendations for possible measures applying to retailers to change consumer behaviour towards purchasing a healthier diet.

We want to reduce Scotland-level consumption of calories, fat, saturated fat, free sugar and salt. These nutrients are a public health concern because our consumption exceeds our requirement. Saturated fat, free sugars and salt can directly increase the risk of health harms such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and tooth decay. Total fat, saturated fat and free sugars also contribute, indirectly through excess calories, to increasing the risk of gaining weight and therefore to increasing the risk of health harm as a result of overweight or obesity.

Point of purchase triggers lead to purchases that otherwise would not have occurred, or would not have occurred in such volume. By reducing sales of foods high in fat, sugar or salt, we aim to reduce population-level consumption of calories, fat, saturated fat, free sugar and salt and so improve public health.

Evidence for the consultation proposals is cited throughout the consultation paper.

Further detail on the policy will be set out when the Bill is introduced to Parliament and the evidence underpinning it will be set out at appropriate stages of the legislative process.

The 2017 NHS Health Scotland report Rapid evidence review: The impact of promotions on high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) food and drink on consumer purchasing and consumption behaviour and the effectiveness of retail environment interventions provides an overview of the best available evidence on the impact of promotions on high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) food and drink on consumer purchasing and consumption behaviour and the effectiveness of promotional interventions to influence consumer behaviour in a retail environment.

In 2015 Food Standards Scotland (FSS) introduced the term “discretionary foods” based on evidence identifying the main food and drink contributors to intakes of calories, fats and sugars in the Scottish diet. These foods have a significant impact on the diet, accounting for, on average, about one fifth of total calories, total fat and saturated fats and over half of daily free sugars consumption. FSS concluded that a key step towards meeting our dietary goals in Scotland would be to reduce our intakes of these foods, which convey little or no nutritional benefit, by around half. These foods are optional in the diet and are therefore considered discretionary.

The briefing paper provides more up-to-date and detailed information to support the FSS position on discretionary foods and provides an evidence base for actions to reduce current intakes of these foods.

The consultation paper Reducing Health Harms of Foods High in Fat, Sugar or Salt , published in October 2018, includes details of evidence for the proposals contained within it. The consultation paper is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/reducing-health-harms-foods-high-fat-sugar-salt/

The UK Government’s consultation paper sets out its proposals for England.

The report provides data between June 2015 and June 2018 on the Out of Home (OOH) food and drink landscape in Scotland.

The report updates previous key findings with data on food and drink purchase and promotions up to 2016, and to expand the information provided on price promotion, including trends over time and differences by retailer. The report also provides further insights into the change in sugar purchase by category and the value of promotions to consumers.

The 2019 NHS Health Scotland report Impact of in-premise marketing on consumer purchasing and consumption of food provides an initial review of evidence on the impact of in-premise marketing of high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) food and drink on consumer behaviour, both in the retail and the out-of-home food sectors. It focuses exclusively on elements of marketing that do not involve a reduction in price, namely positioning, packaging and value-adding promotions.