Food and drink high in fat, sugar and salt - out of home advertising restrictions: rapid evidence review

Data collection

Ethical approval

An ethical sensitivity checklist was completed ahead of the interviews for this project and evaluated as non-sensitive. The project was approved by a Scottish Government Ethical Adviser. Before interviews commenced, consent was obtained from interviewees to share the final report at two levels. First, internally with policy colleagues and second, externally as a published report. Participants were given the opportunity to provide feedback on the report prior to finalisation.

Conversations with local authorities, industry and advocacy groups

Between June and September 2024, conversations were held with representatives from local authorities in the UK to explore their experience of policy planning, implementation and/or evaluation. Meetings were held on Microsoft Teams for approximately 30 minutes to one hour. A topic guide was developed with input from policy colleagues (Annex 1) covering policy implementation. Questions referred to the scope of product restrictions, the advertising sites and scope of site restrictions, exceptions, economic impacts, challenges for policy implementation, support for the policy and unintended consequences. The topic guide was administered in a semi-structured format and information was recorded in written note form. Video and/or audio recording was not used.

Conversations were also held with individuals from the advertising industry and a third sector organisation to obtain a broader understanding of the topic. During these conversations, the topic guide was not used.