Price controls on essential foods: partial business and regulatory impact assessment

Footnotes

1 Consumer price inflation tables - Office for National Statistics and Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted - Office for National Statistics

2 Scottish Government (2022) The Cost of Living Crisis in Scotland: An Analytical Report

3 Family spending in the UK - Office for National Statistics

4 Food insecurity is defined as “the full range of experiences from worry regarding ability to afford food, through to compromising on quality and quantity of food and experiencing hunger”.

5 Scottish Government (2025) The Scottish Health Survey 2024

6 Trussel Trust (2025) Hunger In Scotland

7 Competition & Markets Authority (July 2023) Competition, choice and rising prices in groceries

8 In 2025, 73% of UK household expenditure was in large supermarkets (excluding online purchases). ONS Living Cost Survey

9 ONS, Business Register and Employment Survey 2024

10NESTA (2024) Targeting the health of the nation: technical appendix

11 Worldpanel by Numerator: Grocery Market Share

12 Note the employee number and total annual turnover relate to the entire business and not an individual outlet.

13 It is proposed that a business would be exempt if it wholly or mainly offers food for sale as part of a takeaway food service or both as part of a takeaway food service and for immediate consumption on the premises of sale.

14 In 2025, 73% of UK household expenditure was in large supermarkets (excluding online purchases). ONS Living Cost Survey

15 Scottish Government (2024) Shopping behaviours and meal deals - consumer behaviours: evidence brief

16 IDBR extract provided by Scottish Government business statistics team, SIC code 47.11, March 2025

17 IDBR extract provided by Scottish Government business statistics team, SIC code 47.11, March 2025.

18 A simplified representation of the food supply chain can be found in the Competition, choice and rising prices in groceries - GOV.UK (2023).

19 Competition, choice and rising prices in groceries - GOV.UK

20 Scottish Government (2024) Appendix - The cost of remoteness: reflecting higher living costs in remote rural Scotland when measuring fuel poverty

21 Freathy, P et al (2024) ‘The importance of the informal food economy to food access and security: An examination of the Western Isles of Scotland’

22 Court of Justice of the European Union, Case C‑658/24, Penny Market, Judgment of 18 June 2026, concerning the compatibility of Hungary's mandatory food retail discount scheme with EU law

23 Szecskay Attorneys at Law (2025), Hungary Imposes Profit Margin Caps on Essential Food Items to Combat Inflation

24 As measured by the Consumer Price Index, data as of June 2026.

25 Is supply pressure making the egg industry crack?

26 UK Egg Industry Data | Official Egg Info

27IGD, Oxford Economics (2026) Where does your food pound go?

28 IGD Economics estimates are based on supply chain modelling and industry data and should be regarded as illustrative rather than official statistics.

29 The Food Foundation’s Basic Basket tracker measures weekly prices of a basket of food for an adult male and adult female as part of a reasonably costed, adequately nutritious diet. Prices are taken from food sold in Tesco; however other major supermarkets were offering this product at a similar price point when checked.