National Good Food Nation Plan: Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment

3. Summary of assessment findings

Changes in Outcome Wording

It is important to recognise that without addressing existing inequalities it will not be possible to positively transform the food system. Following the consultation, we have adjusted the wording of the Good Food Nation Outcomes, to make clearer it is the food environment that impacts people’s ability to access good food. This shift in language highlights that the food environment itself influences the kind of food people are able to access, rather than it being solely individual choice. It also makes it clear that socio-economic inequalities are embedded in the structures of the current food system.

The Outcomes themselves do not reference any specific groups but rather take a generalist approach to capture the whole of Scotland. However, by referencing e.g. “everybody” and “the population” it is clear that addressing inequalities is a key element of the Good Food Nation ambition. The Outcomes will be impossible to achieve without addressing those inequalities.

It should also be noted that the first Good Food Nation Plan itself is unlikely to have any direct impacts on outcomes on the ground. By focusing attention on inequalities through the Good Food Nation Outcomes, Scottish Ministers, when exercising specified functions, will have to consider these when developing new policy. We expect that over time this will have a positive impact on reducing inequalities in the food system.

Inclusion of relevant indicators

As part of the Good Food Nation Plan, we have also developed an indicator framework that will be used to keep progress against Outcomes under review. Achieving a Good Food Nation is a process and not an event: the Scottish Government will update both our ambitions for the Good Food Nation and our measures for assessing progress towards them by publishing refreshed and revised versions of the national Good Food Nation Plan at regular intervals. Every two years we will publish a progress report that will assess performance against indicators included in the framework. This includes a range of indicators of relevance to understanding socio-economic inequalities in the food system.

These include:

• Proportion of adults reporting they worry that they are running out of food
• Difference in Mean BMI of adults between the least and most deprived quintiles.
• The difference in the proportion of children with a healthy weight (as measured by BMI) in the most and least deprived quintiles
• Median earnings in the food and drink sector

In addition, other indicators taken from the Scottish Health Survey can also be assessed according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Policies

The Plan currently highlights existing food related policies current in place within the Scottish Government – this is to provide a baseline for future activity. As these are existing policies, no changes were made to them.

The Plan takes effect through the mechanism of specified functions. This means that every time Scottish Ministers perform a specified government activity related to food (which will be set out in secondary legislation) they will have to have regard to the national Good Food Nation Plan.

The Outcomes are one of the key elements set out in the Plan that, in the development of new policy or when carrying out other relevant government work, should be considered. We expect that over time policies will be adjusted to ensure greater alignment. This should ensure that in the development of future food policy the existing socio-economic inequalities are considered and improvements will be made over time.

Through this mechanism we expect the national Good Food Nation Plan will have a positive impact on improving socio-economic inequalities in relation to food in the long-term.

The content of the Scottish Statutory Instrument which will specify the relevant functions and descriptions of functions, will be subject to separate Impact Assessments.

As the Good Food Nation work continues, we will keep Impact Assessments under review and at least every time the Plan is updated. Any individual food policy interventions that are developed following publication of the Plan and its legal effect is enacted will be subject to their own impact assessments were appropriate.

Sign off

Name: Alice Biggins

Job title: Deputy Director of Food and Drink

Date: 15 May 2025