Food and drink promotions: letter to Cabinet Secretary

To: Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care 
cc/ Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic 

From: Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair, Regulatory Review Group

Dear Neil, 

I am writing as Chair of the Regulatory Review Group (RRG) to provide independent advice on upcoming regulations restricting 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 measures in the upcoming regulations restricting 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. 

Restrictions on the promotion of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt. 

Along with RRG members, I met with your officials on Thursday 27 November 2025. Your officials provided an insightful presentation on the policy issue and 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. Clear guidance on which retailers and which products are to be affected by the restrictions must be produced and circulated ahead of commencement, as part of broader communication of the changes to retailers and consumers. It is the group’s understanding that there have been differing views among retailers as to which businesses fall under the scope of comparable regulations in England and Wales, particularly with regard to symbol groups, franchises and specialist shops. Understanding which products are subject to restrictions on promotion has also proven difficult to interpret consistently. Greater clarity on the scope of regulations is needed for retailers to be able to fully comply – and communication of this scope to retailers and consumers is vital to ensure suitable enforcement can take place. As previously highlighted by the RRG, an effectively resourced communications programme ahead of commencement – including greater clarity on the scope of restrictions - is key to ensuring that businesses can adapt their systems to comply with the regulations, as well as helping consumers to understand new purchasing dynamics.
2. Consideration should be given to the cumulative impact of changes on the retail sector. The retail sector faces new regulations on tobacco and vaping promotions and sales in the same period as the regulations on food and drink promotions are to commence. While we understand that the timing of the Tobacco and Vaping regulations is being driven by UK-wide implementation schedules, the cumulative impact of multiple disruptive changes to the regulation of the retail sector should be taken into account. 

In future, officials should consider common commencement dates for multiple regulations with an impact on a single sector, in order to consolidate any operational changes required of businesses. Linked to this, officials across government working on policies impacting a single sector should work collaboratively to sequence implementation with regard to the cumulative impact of their policies upon the sector in question. 

The RRG invites your policy officials to return to the RRG once this work has progressed. 

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