Meeting of the Parliament 02 October 2014
I am pleased to open the debate on the general principles of the Food (Scotland) Bill. I thank those who gave evidence, both written and in person, and the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee, the Finance Committee and the Health and Sport Committee for their detailed scrutiny of the bill at stage 1. In particular, I welcome the latter’s support for the bill’s general principles and I have recently responded to its stage 1 report.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people in Scotland live longer, healthier lives. Making sure that we eat a good, nutritious diet of safe food is vital to achieving that ambition. Food-borne diseases cost Scotland £140 million per year. Most significantly, of the 130,000 consumers who contract food-borne diseases each year, around 2,000 will be hospitalised and around 50 will die.
Bad eating habits are one of the most significant causes of ill health in Scotland and a major factor in obesity. Scotland is positioned near the top of the league tables for obesity in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. The public cost of dealing with obesity could rise to £3 billion per year by 2030, so even relatively minor improvements to the safety and standards of food in Scotland will have significant social and economic benefits.
The Food (Scotland) Bill will give Scotland some of the levers that we can use to tackle those issues. First, the bill will create food standards Scotland, which will be Scotland’s independent food safety and standards body. We are working to appoint a board and chair of high calibre, with the range of experience and skills required to guide food standards Scotland. We are also in the process of recruiting its first chief executive. Subject to the bill’s progress, we aim to identify the chair early this month, identify the chief executive by the end of the month and appoint the remainder of the board to a shadow body by the end of November.
As food standards Scotland will be a non-ministerial body, operating free from ministers’ influence, the board and chief executive will need sufficient space to prepare and develop their strategic thinking and build key relationships with partners in time for FSS being up and running in April 2015.
Food standards Scotland’s clear objectives, as set out in the bill by ministers and Parliament, will be to develop and help others develop policies on food and animal feedstuffs; advise the Scottish Government, other authorities and the public on food and animal feedstuffs; keep the public and users of animal feedstuffs advised, to help them make informed decisions about food and animal feedstuffs; and monitor the performance of enforcement authorities in enforcing food legislation.
The bill sets out specific duties and associated powers for the new body on acquiring and reviewing information through carrying out observations and inspections, monitoring developments and carrying out, commissioning and co-ordinating research.
The bill will allow the body to set performance standards for enforcement authorities—mainly local authorities—in enforcing food legislation in Scotland.
Once the bill establishes the body, we will constitute it separately by order as a non-ministerial office in the Scottish Administration. As such, food standards Scotland will be fully accountable to the Scottish Parliament and autonomous of the Scottish Government.
Food standards Scotland will take on all the functions that are currently exercised in Scotland by the Scottish division of the United Kingdom-wide Food Standards Agency. For some years now, the remit of that division has been wider than the remit south of the border; in 2010, the UK Government removed responsibility for labelling and nutrition policy from the FSA’s English arm, while in Scotland, we maintained the link between those aspects and food safety. The UK decision was subsequently seen as a factor in hindering the UK Government’s response to the horsemeat scandal in 2013.
The horsemeat scandal demonstrated the importance of having a single body with clear responsibility for all aspects of food safety and standards. Indeed, it was the UK Government’s decision that led us to review the FSA’s work in Scotland. In March 2012, Professor Jim Scudamore, a former UK chief veterinary officer, published his report on the issue. His review concluded that food safety should not be divorced from nutrition and labelling; that advice on those subjects should be independent, evidence based and consumer focused; and that advice on food safety and nutrition should come from a body at arm’s length from the Scottish ministers.