Rural Affairs and Islands Committee 03 December 2025
The work to develop the SSI has already started that process. There has been a lot of cross-policy and cross-portfolio working, so there is really good awareness of the way in which the national good food nation plan will take legal effect through the specified functions and descriptions.
As we have been having those conversations with colleagues, we have also been testing how best to monitor, because we do not want an additional bureaucratic burden but, rather, something that is effective and takes account of the fact that policies can take time to develop. Through having check-in points with the good food nation team at the beginning of policy work on anything that is related to food; offering help through the team by putting policy colleagues in touch with other areas that might be relevant to the development of the new policy or legislation, guidance or whatever it is that they are working on; and, at the end of the process, recording how regard has been had and which specified functions and descriptions have been used, we will be able to understand which are being used on a regular basis, which may not have been used, whether there are gaps and whether our policy colleagues are highlighting something that should be added.
Throughout that process, the good food nation team will act as a central point, so that people always know whom to get in touch with, and we can put them in touch with other policy areas across the Scottish Government.