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

Conclusion

As a result of the evidence gathered and analysed against all UNCRC requirements, what is the potential overall impact of this proposal on children’s rights?

The evidence gathered and analysis undertaken indicates that The Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 has the potential to benefit the health of all children living in Scotland and to a greater extent than the general population given evidence suggests that children consume more HFSS foods than adults. The policy supports the right of the child to the highest attainable standard of health encapsulated in Article 24.

In line with the ambition to support healthier food choices at population level including the ambition to reduce rates of childhood obesity in Scotland the policy will:

• targets food categories of most concern to childhood obesity
• use nutrient profiling to identify foods within targeted categories that are less healthy (high in fat, sugar or salt). Nutrient profile modelling (NPM) is evidence-based, well known and used successfully across the food-industry to identify food and drink to be regulated in the marketing of food to children.

If you have identified a positive impact on children’s rights, please describe below how the proposal will protect, respect, and fulfil children’s rights in Scotland.

In line with Article 24 and children’s rights to the highest attainable standard of health, the policy seeks to support more children to be of a healthy weight by taking action to improve the food environment.

In addition, evidence suggests that measures such as those outlined in the policy that seek to transform the food environment are more likely to be effective in reducing health inequality than measures aimed at encouraging individuals to change their behaviours

If a negative impact has been identified, please describe it below. Is there a risk this could potentially amount to an incompatibility?

No negative impacts on children’s rights have been identified.

Mitigation Record

Issue or risk identified and relevant UNCRC requirement

N/A

Action Taken/ To Be Taken

N/A

Date action to be taken or was taken

N/A

As a result of the evidence gathered and analysed against all wellbeing indicators, will the proposal contribute to the wellbeing of children and young people in Scotland?

Safe: Not Applicable

Healthy: Yes

Achieving: Not Applicable

Nurtured: Not Applicable

Active: Not Applicable

Respected: Not Applicable

Responsible: Not Applicable

Included: Not Applicable

If yes, please provide an explanation below:

The evidence gathered and analysis undertaken indicates that The Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 has the potential to benefit the health of all children living in Scotland. Action to improve the food environment will support healthier food choices supporting people including children and young people to maintain a healthy weight in line with the vision for everyone in Scotland to live healthier lives for as long as possible.

How will you communicate to children and young people the impact that the proposal will have on their rights?

The Scottish Government continue to engage Young Scot as Scotland’s national youth information platform to help shape how we communicate with children and young people the outcome of the consultation and the decision to regulate less healthy food and drink.