Food and drink promotions: letter to Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care

To: Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Cc/ Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health      

From: Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair – Regulatory Review Group
c/o: RRG Secretariat 

Dear Neil,

I am writing as Chair of the Regulatory Review Group (RRG) to provide independent advice on the proposed legislation to regulate the promotion of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt. 
This note provides an overview of the RRG’s role, and details recommendations on the pace of change, and enforcement and communications considerations.

Regulatory Review Group (RRG)

The independent RRG was re-established by the Scottish Government as part of the New Deal for Business to support Scottish Ministers in improving the regulatory environment for businesses and their involvement in that process. The RRG’s membership is detailed in the Annex. The RRG consider upcoming regulatory developments and as part of its work programme identified the proposed legislation to regulate the promotion of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt as a scrutiny priority.

The RRG’s objectives are to:

1. Work constructively with the Scottish Government to ensure that policy officials and relevant Ministers are sighted on implementation challenges with regulations early in development.
2. Deliver purposeful and targeted written and verbal advice to the Scottish Government, drawing upon extensive expert insight from business and regulators across Scotland.
3. Support the delivery of the New Deal for Business by ensuring that the potential barriers to the success of Scottish Government policies are removed through an improved understanding of the practicalities of implementation.

The RRG’s remit is to examine and identify implementation challenges and appropriate mitigations of regulation. The RRG does not provide a view on the appropriateness of substantive policy or decisions to be taken on legislative priorities.

Proposed legislation to regulate the promotion of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt.

Along with RRG members, I met with your officials on Thursday 26 June 2025. Your officials provided an insightful update on this complex policy issue, the proposed legislation timescales, and they also provided detailed responses to our questions. 

The following recommendations have been made by the RRG for consideration as part of the policy development and legislative process:

1. The RRG notes that the intention is not to target independent retailers, with premises under 2000 sq. feet not included. However, the potential for access to promotions of HFSS to be shifted to smaller outlets is a concern to RRG members. The RRG has previously raised that further work should be undertaken to understand what the impact for small businesses operating as part of a symbol group will be and where responsibilities for compliance and liability will sit. Alongside exemptions and definitions, the RRG has reservations on free standing display restrictions which may pose a challenge to smaller premises with less flexibility in terms of space. This could be difficult to define within the regulations and should be explored with industry experts first. 
2. With the potential for an uneven playing field to be created by any legislation, RRG members have concerns about the consequences on local independent stores, especially given the potential for differing impact in different communities across Scotland. RRG members believe that great care will need to be taken, as the legislation develops, to assess effectiveness in more rural areas who consume more from smaller retailers.
3. Whilst the positive feedback from business and public health stakeholders is acknowledged and welcomed, RRG members are mindful of consumer impact. Policy officials advised that work continues with communications colleagues and Young Scot, with work also ongoing to continue the important work of framing and messaging, which members welcomed. However this continues to be a vital impact to be considered as the policy and legislation develops. RRG members are concerned about how the policy may affect single or low income households and the Scottish Government should carefully consider mitigations which will encourage the selection of healthier options, in line with the policy objectives. The RRG has previously highlighted that effectively resourcing and delivering an early communications programme will help businesses operating across the UK to adapt their systems and comply with the evolving regulatory environment. Not only will this help businesses but also help consumers understand the new purchasing dynamics.

RRG members are encouraged by the continued open and constructive approach to engaging with the Group, with business and Local Authorities, which should be continued in the further developing of regulations and any subsequent guidance. The RRG invites your policy officials to return as the proposals and legislation develop further, to provide a further update.

A copy of this letter will be published on the RRG’s webpage and has been sent to your Ministerial colleagues with an interest in this area.

The RRG would be happy to discuss the above recommendations with you and would welcome an update on how the Scottish Government intends to take this forward during the policy development and legislative process.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Russel Griggs OBE
Chair, Regulatory Review Group

Annex

Membership of RRG

• Chairman, Professor Russel Griggs OBE
• Fiona Richardson, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA)
• James Fowlie, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA)
• Craig Brown, Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland
• David MacKenzie, Trading Standards
• Ewan Macdonald-Russell, Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC)
• Susan Love, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Douglas White, Consumer Scotland

Members are representatives of business, regulators and consumers, however, are acting independently in their RRG involvement.