National Good Food Nation Plan: Island Communities Impact Assessment

Assessment

While island communities face unique challenges in relation to the food system, the first national Good Food Nation Plan is not expected to impact island communities differently compared to other communities.

The consultation workshops also highlighted themes which aligned with the online citizenspace consultation responses. Adjustments made to the national Good Food Nation Plan taking into consideration the overall feedback from the consultation, which was of course informed by the opinions raised at the workshops held in island locations.

The Good Food Nation Plan has been developed in a way to firstly address how food policy is developed within the Scottish Government, to ensure greater consistency of national policy. It is this new approach that is innovative about Good Food Nation. As new food related policy is developed Scottish Ministers and, by extension, civil servants will have to have regard to the national Good Food Nation Plan. This requirement to have regard does not change the current requirements to conduct impact assessments, and individual policy teams will still be expected to follow the existing legislation and guidance regarding impact assessments, including undertaking any island communities impact assessments were appropriate.

In addition, it is important to recognise that the approach to Good Food Nation Plans has been designed to allow for flexibility at the local level, through the requirement on relevant authorities (local authorities and health boards) to produce their own Good Food Nation Plans. This recognition of the importance of local policy in the context of food systems will enable island communities to identify solutions to their unique challenges within their own contexts.

The purpose of the first national Good Food Nation Plan is to provide a strategic and overarching direction in relation to food related policy across the Scottish Government. A key aim of this first Plan is to baseline current activity, to describe the necessary mechanisms and how we will use these to embed the new ways of working in future policy making. New policies and the associated delivery mechanisms will be developed as a next step and decisions regarding the involvement of island communities in these processes will be taken on a case by case basis.

By establishing an appropriate monitoring framework, we can establish the baseline level of performance for our food system relative to our Outcomes. Through this framework we will monitor, at a national level, how different aspects of our food system that are aligned to our Outcomes are changing. At this point we do not have island specific indicators, but this will be assessed as part of our ongoing review and revision cycles and will be updated if required. It should be noted that as relevant authorities start to produce their own Good Food Nation Plans, they will also develop their own indicators that will be of greater relevance to local issues and the particular outcomes for each of the island relevant authorities.

Sign Off

In preparing the ICIA, we have formed an opinion that the national Good Food Nation Plan is not likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities (including other island communities). The reason for this is detailed above.

ICIA approved by Alice Biggins – Deputy Director of Food and Drink

Date completed - May 2025