Hansard

An important thing that will be achieved with the creation of FSS is that we will have a body that can co-ordinate how we tackle nutrition issues and change people’s diets to ensure that their diets and lifestyles are healthier. We cannot achieve that at present because that work is undertaken by a range of agencies. FSS will be able to take a much more co-ordinated approach to issues such as the one highlighted by Stewart Stevenson than is possible at the moment. We took forward the key recommendation in Professor Jim Scudamore’s report that we establish a specific food safety body in Scotland, and that has led to the legislation before us today, which creates food standards Scotland.

The bill introduces new food law provisions that are designed to protect and improve public health and other consumer interests by driving up hygiene standards and reducing the incidence of food-borne disease; by providing safeguards against food standards incidents such as the horsemeat food fraud; and by strengthening and simplifying the penalties regime for breaches of food law. Those arrangements will increase consumer and investor confidence and will help make Scotland an even more attractive place for food businesses.

The bill also provides for powers to seize and detain food that does not comply with food information law, and those powers will align food information powers more closely with existing food safety powers. Currently, unsafe food can be seized or detained, and courts must order its destruction. However, there are no such powers for food that is safe but which does not comply with food information requirements. In light of the horsemeat food fraud incidents, the power to seize or detain food that does not meet food information requirements in respect of, for example, labelling will help to eliminate food fraud. Without such a power, a food business might still be able to pass on food that does not comply with food information law.

The bill also creates a statutory offence of failure to report breaches of food information law. The provision will more closely align food standards requirements with the existing duty to report breaches of food safety legislation. Under the proposed arrangements, it will become an offence for a food business to fail to notify food standards Scotland if it suspects that food that has been placed on the market does not comply with food information law.

The bill provides for the introduction at some point in future, by regulation, of a statutory scheme for the mandatory display by food businesses of hygiene inspection outcomes. The intention is to drive up food hygiene standards and reduce the incidence of food-borne disease. The voluntary food hygiene information scheme is already in place, and almost all local authorities in Scotland have launched it locally.

A similar scheme has been introduced in England and Wales, and a similar scheme is being introduced in Northern Ireland. We will monitor developments in that regard, with a view to creating a statutory scheme in Scotland. For that reason, the food law provisions in the bill give the Scottish ministers the power to introduce a statutory scheme after fuller consultation.

The bill includes provision for the Scottish ministers to regulate animal feeding stuffs and their production, retaining ministers’ existing powers under the Food Standards Act 1999, through a delegated power for ministers to use when existing delegated powers might not be sufficient. The existing powers have not been used in the UK since 1999, but we think that they should be retained so that everything possible is in place to guard against feed incidents.

The bill streamlines Scotland’s food law enforcement regime by providing for administrative sanctions, so that people who commit offences can be dealt with more quickly and at less cost. The administrative sanctions regime, which consists of compliance notices and fixed penalties, will give enforcement officers more flexibility to deal appropriately with food offences.

The option to use administrative penalties will reduce the burden on the courts and will reduce local authorities’ costs in relation to prosecuting through the court system. The approach will give enforcement authorities a wider and more proportionate set of tools from which to choose when they deal with contraventions of food law.

In evidence to the Health and Sport Committee it was suggested that there should be an appeals process for people who are given fixed-penalty notices. We are considering the proposal and we are working closely with stakeholders to develop a transparent and consistent process for resolving disputes.

The arrangements on enforcement and improvement were recommended to the Scottish Government by the independent expert advisory group that reported on the lessons to be learned for Scotland from the 2013 horsemeat food fraud scandal.

The recommendations on seizure of food, food hygiene information and administrative sanctions were made last year by the Food Standards Agency in Scotland, following a public consultation on new food law provisions.

We intend to lodge a small number of Government amendments in light of the stage 1 proceedings to date. As members of the Health and Sport Committee are aware, they include amendment of the definition of “food” to reflect the recently amended definition in the Scotland Act 1998. We also intend to implement the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee’s recommendation that we restrict the power to regulate animal feeding stuffs in section 34 by lodging an amendment whose effect will be to cap the maximum penalty level for an offence that is created by use of the power.

The bill will ensure that food safety in Scotland is given the prominence that it deserves by establishing food standards Scotland and equipping it with the necessary functions and powers, so that it can make expedient decisions on issues that specifically affect Scotland and take action to improve the diet of the people of Scotland.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Food (Scotland) Bill.