Regulatory Review Group minutes: May 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chairman
• Fiona Richardson, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Ewan MacDonald-Russell, Scottish Retail Consortium
• Douglas White, Consumer Scotland
• Craig Brown, Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland
• James Fowlie, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• David MacKenzie, Trading Standards
• Hazel Burgess, Scottish Government
• Andrew Murphy, Scottish Government 
• Wendy McCutcheon, Scottish Government
• Alex Kidd, Scottish Government (Secretariat)
• Euan Reid, Scottish Government (Secretariat)

Apologies

• Susan Love, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

Items and actions

Welcome, Introductions and Approval of Minutes

Professor Russel Griggs OBE welcomed and thanked attendees for participating in this virtual Regulatory Review Group (RRG) meeting. Minutes from the previous meeting (29 April 2025) were agreed. 

Update on Professor Griggs’ meeting with the Chair of the Regulatory Policy Committee

Russel updated the group on his meeting of 29 April with the chair of the UK Government’s Regulatory Policy Committee. He noted that there were both similarities and differences between the function of this body and the RRG. Russel agreed to meet with the chair every 6 months.

Update on Professor Griggs’ meeting with Food and Drink Federation Scotland

Russel shared an update about his meeting with Food and Drink Federation Scotland (FDF) on 8 May to discuss carbon accounting standards for egg retailers. Questions remained over the impact on egg producers that any set of unified standards may have. A further conversation will be held in due course and the group will be updated accordingly.

Correspondence

Response Letter from Deputy First Minister (DFM)

A response letter to the RRG from the DFM concerning funding for regulatory enforcement was acknowledged by the RRG.

A broad discussion then followed on how the enforcement of regulation is funded, during which a number of key points were raised:

• there is often uncertainty as to whether funding will be available for enforcement, depending on the timing of funding decisions at a local or national level. Ring-fenced funding could help with this but would conflict with the Verity House agreement between the Scottish Government (SG) and COSLA.
• despite this presumption against ringfencing, there is still a sense that local authorities and regulators are being directed towards focussing on certain areas of spending by ministers, which can lead to de-prioritisation for some areas.
• failure to enforce existing regulations may create frustration among compliant businesses, potentially undermining support for future regulatory initiatives.
• inadequate enforcement can also erode consumer confidence as consumers expect regulations to be actively upheld. This erosion of trust could have broader negative implications for the overall economy.

A response will be sent from the RRG to the DFM, thanking her for her correspondence but emphasising the challenges to consumer/business confidence and economic growth that a lack of enforcement of regulation could lead to.

Response Letter from Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy

A response letter from Ms Martin on the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) was acknowledged and discussed. It was felt that there are still outstanding questions concerning the extent to which the DRS will be an improvement over existing recycling services. Members agreed that the RRG will consider the DRS further.

Update from the Scottish Government

Scottish Government officials updated the group on a number of relevant areas of work. It was noted that in the wake of the end of the New Deal for Business (NDBG), there were a number of related commitments in the Programme for Government. Work is ongoing to track all upcoming policies/initiatives that may have an impact on business, which will help inform discussions at the Cabinet Subcommittee on Investment and the Economy (CSC-IE). DFM will write to the RRG on behalf of the CSC-IE on policies of concern, which will help inform and shape the RRG’s future work programme.

SG will also be looking at the Regulators Code of Practice to see where this can be updated. There will be engagement with regulators on this going forward.

It was noted that discussions on policy around both charges for single-use cups and restrictions on the promotion of food and drink high in fat, sugar and salt are currently ongoing, and engagement will be taking place between SG teams to work out timescales for these policies. Once timescales are clearer, we would be looking for the teams behind these policies to attend the RRG again.

Consumer Duty

Scottish Government officials led the discussion with a presentation on progress on the implementation of the Consumer Duty across Scotland’s public bodies. The role of the consumer duty in improving consumer confidence, including among SMEs, was emphasised.

A discussion then followed on the Consumer Duty, where the following points were raised:

• it may be difficult for local authorities to know how to comply with the consumer duty, as their work is spread broadly across many areas with many different consumers.
• there were concerns that there was a growing cumulative impact of statutory impact assessments upon public bodies, and that the Consumer Duty would add to fiscal and workload pressures.
• it was raised that clarity is required as to where the consumer duty sits among other government strategies.

The cumulative impact of impact assessments and related statutory requirements on public bodies will be discussed in the RRG’s response to the DFM.

Next Steps/ AOB

The next meeting of the group will be held in-person at 5 Atlantic Quay on Thursday 26 June 2025.