Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Brief Summary

The Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025

The primary aim of this policy is to reduce the public health harms associated with the excess consumption of calories, fat, sugar and salt including the risks of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, various types of cancer and other conditions such as cardiovascular disease. The regulations are part of a wide-ranging suite of actions to support healthier diets and healthy weight. This policy is also aimed at reducing diet-related health inequalities including in relation to socioeconomic disadvantage.

The food environment and the options available and promoted to us shape our health. It is often skewed towards the promotion of less healthy food and drink, which can encourage people to purchase more than they need or intend and consume additional calories.

By restricting promotions on high fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) foods, the policy aim is to shift the balance of promotions towards healthier options making it easier for people to reduce volume and impulse purchase of HFSS food and drink and make healthier choices. Evidence indicates that action to improve the food environment will contribute to improvements in population levels of healthy weight – in line with the priority set out in the Population Health Framework.

The Framework is based on five key interconnected prevention drivers of health and wellbeing:

• Prevention Focused System
• Social and Economic Factors
• Places and Communities
• Enabling Healthy Living
• Equitable Access to Health and Care

Restricting the promotions of less healthy food and drink has been identified as an early priority action under the Framework.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 provides the framework for clear, consistent and coherent future Scottish food policy including cross-public agency action.

Restricting the promotion of less healthy food and drink is a population level intervention and is expected to have a positive impact on public health across population groups. Focusing on transforming the food environment is more likely to help improve diet and weight and be more effective in reducing health inequality than only encouraging individual behaviour change.

Regulations will make it easier for people to make healthier food choices by:

• targeting food categories that are significant contributors of calories, fat and sugar to the Scottish diet and are the food categories of ‘most concern to childhood obesity’ as described in the UK-wide reformulation programmes;
• restricting promotions of pre-packed food and drink products within targeted food categories that are HFSS;
• restricting certain price promotions of targeted HFSS foods, such as multi-buy offers (for example buy one get one free) and free refills of soft drinks with added sugar;
• restricting the placement of targeted HFSS foods in prominent locations in store and online.

Location restrictions - where a product can be displayed - will not apply to the following for practical considerations:

• specialist retailers (e.g. chocolatiers, confectioners, cake shops); and
• stores with a floor area of less than 185.8 m² (2,000 sq. ft).

The promotion and location restrictions (with the exception of the restriction on free refills of soft drinks with added sugar) will apply to businesses with 50 or more employees that offer prepacked targeted HFSS foods to the public, both in store and online (excluding out-of-home businesses such as restaurants, cafes and takeaways).

The restriction on free refills of soft drinks with added sugar will apply to business with 50 or more employees that offer such soft drinks for sale to the public (in store).

Where businesses operate under a franchise or franchise like agreement, the employees of the businesses operating under those agreements are treated as employees of the franchisor and not of separate businesses for calculating whether the franchisor business has 50 or more employees.

Scottish Government plans for restriction of promotions align with equivalent policies to restrict promotion of less healthy food and drink in England and in Wales.

Start date of proposal’s development

Initial policy development commenced in 2017 and has been refined through a series of stakeholder engagement and public consultation. Public consultation has taken place in 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2024. Consultation responses have been central to further developing the policy.

Start date of CRWIA process: 2017

With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which aspects of the proposal are relevant to/impact upon children’s rights?

The Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 seek to benefit the health of all children living in Scotland. The policy is assessed as positively impacting on the rights of the child in line with the WHO recommendation to restrict the exposure of children to marketing of HFSS products. Consideration has been given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation)(Scotland) Act 2024. Of particular relevance to this policy are Articles 24 and 27.

Article 24 – Health and Health Services

The UNCRC recognises children have the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to continuing to take forward the wide range of action necessary to protect and improve children’s health, with a focus on prevention. Action to improve the food environment is central to achieving this aim.

Regulations to restrict the promotion of HFSS food and drink is one in a suite of actions being taken forward to support people, including children, to make healthier choices about food. It is the Scottish Government’s intention that these regulations target food categories that are significant contributors of calories, fat and sugar to the Scottish diet, and are the food categories of 'most concern to childhood obesity' as described in the UK-wide reformulation programmes.

Targeting these categories supports the aim to reduce the public health harms associated with excess consumption of calories, fats, sugar and salt and is in line with the commitment to improve rates of childhood obesity.

This action will support adults and children to make healthier food choices helping to create a Scotland where it is easier for everyone to eat well and have a healthy weight.

Article 27 – Adequate Standard of Living

The UNCRC recognises children have the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes food.

The policy does not seek to restrict access or availability to food. No food or drink is being banned. Only the promotion of targeted HFSS food and drink is being restricted.

Regulations will not limit the range of food and drink available or prevent targeted foods from being offered for sale. The policy is therefore not expected to impact on access to food. Reducing exposure to certain promotions of less healthy food and drink is expected to support children and adults to make healthier food choices, helping to support diet, healthy weight and overall health improvement.

Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal

Several public consultations have been run over the course of this policy’s development. Public consultation has taken place in 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2024. Consultation responses have helped to further develop the policy.

The Scottish Government have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders including individual businesses, industry representatives, young people, people with lived experience of poverty, public health stakeholders and Scottish Government policy teams with policy responsibility for aspects of children’s wellbeing. Outputs from this engagement suggested the policy may have a more positive impact on younger age groups compared to older age groups given the dietary difference between children and the general population and evidence that children are more responsive to promotions. The “Analysis of Evidence” section below considers these outputs in further detail.

In the main feedback from the series of consultations and programme of engagement was supportive of the aims of the policy. Public health stakeholders in particular were supportive of the potential for the policy to improve rates of childhood obesity expressing the need for stronger restriction on less healthy food and drink in parallel with increased promotion of healthier choices. Engagement with people with lived experience of poverty showed support for location restrictions with parents particularly welcoming the removal of less healthy promotions at checkouts.

Industry in the main called for alignment with the equivalent policy in England raising concern that any divergence had the potential for increased pass-through costs to customers. Individual views tended to align with industry concerns that the price of goods would increase to cover the additional costs to business of implementing the policy. Cost of living considerations and how they may impact on different population groups are considered in more detail in the Equality Impact Assessment and Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment.

Further to the evidence described at ‘3’ have you identified any 'gaps' in evidence which may prevent determination of impact? If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed

The evidence suggests the policy will have a positive impact on the health of children, with the potential for children to benefit to a greater extent than the general population. No specific evidence gaps have been identified and early findings from a University of Leeds study in England suggest that the part of the policy implemented in England from 2022 (locations restrictions) has been effective and equitable.

Analysis of Evidence

The Scottish Health Survey reported in 2024 that just under a fifth (18%) of the children living in Scotland were at risk of obesity, a proportion that has remained in the range 13% - 18% since 1998. Thirty three per cent of children were at risk of becoming overweight (including obesity).

Children at risk of obesity can experience an increased risk of fractures, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, asthma, as well as negative psychological effects including lower wellbeing and self-esteem during the childhood years.

Regular overconsumption of HFSS foods is one of the key factors leading to weight gain and obesity. Evidence suggests that children consume more HFSS foods than adults^[1] and young families with children under 10 are more likely to make less healthy food purchases. Evidence suggests that many children and young people often make purchases of food or drink due to the influence of promotions. Promotions can lead to ‘pester power’ being exerted by children on parents leading to HFSS purchases.

Promotions can encourage bulk purchasing as well as impulse purchases and increased consumption. Policies such as this one aimed at reducing promotions to reduce excess consumption of HFSS foods may be expected to have a proportionately greater beneficial impact on children contributing to healthier eating habits during formative years and supporting Article 24.

It is considered reasonable to assume that a large proportion of what children eat is provided by adults, therefore food purchasing carried out by children is likely to be a minor consideration and hence where they shop is not a key factor in any differential impact.

What changes (if any) have been made to the proposal as a result of this assessment?

The rights of the child are embedded into the development of this policy.

Since inception the policy has been focused on improving population levels of healthy weight and the Scottish Government ambition to halve childhood obesity.

Following careful consideration of the feedback received to the 2022 consultation, the Scottish Government 2024 consultation set out proposals to target a wider set of food categories. These are food categories of 'most concern to childhood obesity' as described in the UK-wide reformulation programmes. The Scottish Government’s policy response to key feedback received to the 2024 public consultation on the detail of proposed regulations confirmed the intention to target food and drink categories that are significant contributors of calories, fat, sugar or salt to the Scottish diet, and of most concern to childhood obesity.