Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025: island communities impact assessment

Consultation and stakeholder engagement

The potential impact of the policy on island communities has been considered as part of the development of a suite of impact assessments including this ICIA to support final policy decisions.

The Restricting Promotions Policy Team has lead responsibility for the ICIA and has sought input and support from Analytical Services, relevant policy areas in SG, and from external stakeholders including Public Health Scotland and Food Standards Scotland. In addition, the ICIA has been informed by multiple public consultations and a review of available evidence.

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 potentially related to islands considerations include:

• more flexibility in the approach for small shops was advocated by one third sector respondent, especially in rural areas where space is limited and the business provides important community functions;
• differential impact on rural communities in Scotland due to the lack of choice in local businesses; (individual respondent)
• small / rural stores (several individual respondents) felt the limited floorspace available in some rural shops would be further compromised.

The Scottish Government has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders including individual businesses, industry representatives and people with lived experience of poverty. Business expressed concerns that the full package of measures proposed in the 2024 consultation may potentially disproportionally impact stores in rural and island communities and result in increased costs for consumers. Public health stakeholders raised concerns that exempting small stores especially in rural areas and areas of multiple deprivation could exacerbate health inequalities. Feedback from people with lived experience of poverty living in rural locations noted:

• a greater reliance on smaller local stores for their primary food shop;
• transport was a key area of distinction between experiences for urban and rural residents. Unlike urban residents, the majority of rural residents had access to a car and noted travelling significant distances to access larger, cheaper supermarkets;
• rural participants noted relying on online shopping more than urban participants.

Consultation responses and outputs from stakeholder engagement have been considered as part of arriving at a final decision on the policy and the regulations.