Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025: business and regulatory impact assessment

8. Consumer Assessment

At present the food environment heavily incentivises and promotes low cost foods which contributes disproportionately to energy, fat, saturated fat, free sugar and salt intakes.^[55] The proposals are expected to support consumers to make healthier choices by addressing consumer exposure to promotion of unhealthy food. Measures to transform the food environment, such as restricting the promotion of less healthy foods and reducing the energy density of food, are more likely to be effective in reducing health inequalities then measures aimed at encouraging individual to change their behaviour. This is anticipated to protect consumers from the potential harms caused by overconsumption of HFSS products.

Further information about the intended impact on consumers and the evidence to support this is set out in the 2022 and 2024 consultations and the 2024 partial BRIA. The importance of improving the nation’s diet is central to this, given the long established association between poor diet, excess weight.^[56] Section 2.3 details the rationale for Government intervention which outlines the public health harms associated with the excess consumption of calories, fat, sugar and salt. Positive steps to reduce the impact of the promotion of HFSS food and drinks is expected to lessen consumer purchasing and associated consumption of these products which in turn will support consumers to make healthier choices in line with the objective to improve the nation’s diet and reduce health harms linked to the excess consumption of calories, fat, sugar and salt.

Building on the extensive programme of consultation and engagement with a range of stakeholders detailed at section 3, the impact of the policy on different types of consumers, including feedback from individuals to the 2024 consultation, is considered as part of the suite of impact assessments accompanying these regulations including an Equalities Impact Assessment, Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment, an Island Communities Impact Assessment and a Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment.

These regulations do not limit access to a broad range of products but only restrict the promotion of those products. The measure therefore does not limit consumer access to products they may wish to purchase. Evidence suggests that promotion of HFSS products encourages impulse purchasing and can increase the cost of shopping for consumers, either by changing behaviour to increase the volume of purchases (e.g. in the case of multibuy promotions) or by encouraging switching to branded products on promotion. These measures are therefore expected to support consumers to be able to make healthier and more informed choices about product purchases.