Hansard

I thank the Health and Sport Committee for its consideration of the bill and for its careful handling of the bill at stage 2, as well as the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee for its very detailed scrutiny. I also thank the bill team and my colleague Michael Matheson for doing the bulk of the work surrounding the bill.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people in Scotland live longer, healthier lives. Ensuring that we eat a good, nutritious diet of safe food is vital to achieving that ambition. Food-borne diseases, for example, cost Scotland £140 million a year. More significantly, of the 130,000 consumers who contract food-borne diseases each year, around 2,000 will be hospitalised and around 50 will, sadly, die. Similarly, poor eating habits are one of the most significant causes of ill health in Scotland and are a major factor in obesity.

The Food (Scotland) Bill gives Scotland some of the levers that we can use to tackle those issues. First, the bill will create food standards Scotland to be Scotland’s independent food safety and standards body. We have already announced the appointment of Ross Finnie as the chair designate. I met Mr Finnie last week and will shortly announce the names of the other members.

FSS will comprise eight members, including the chair, as allowed for in the bill. I have noted concerns, which were expressed earlier, about the minimum number of members allowed for in the bill. I hope that appointing a full complement of members now demonstrates the Government’s intention to maintain a broad membership for food standards Scotland. As FSS will be a non-ministerial body, operating free from the influence of ministers, the board and chief executive will need sufficient space to prepare and develop their strategic thinking and build key relationships with partners.

We have also announced the appointment of the acting Food Standards Agency director Geoff Ogle as chief executive designate. I met him on Friday and he is keen to make progress. He is assembling his executive team and working with staff in Aberdeen to be ready for FSS to take on its full range of functions on 1 April 2015.

Food standards Scotland’s clear objectives as set out in the bill will be to

“protect the public from risks to health which may arise in connection with the consumption of food ... improve the extent to which members of the public have diets which are conducive to good health”

and

“protect the other interests of consumers in relation to food.”

To achieve those objectives, the bill sets out clear functions: to develop, and help others develop, policies on food and animal feeding stuffs; to advise the Scottish Government, other authorities and the public on food and animal feeding stuffs; to keep the public and users of animal feeding stuffs advised to help them to make informed decisions about food and feedstuffs; and to 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 or co-ordinating research.

New food law provisions are the second lever that we are introducing through the bill to tackle food issues in Scotland. They are designed to protect and improve public health and other interests of consumers by driving up hygiene standards and reducing the incidence of food-borne disease; providing safeguards against food standards incidents such as the horsemeat food fraud; and strengthening and simplifying the penalties regime for breaches of food law.

The bill provides powers to seize and detain food that does not comply with food information law. Those powers will more closely align food information powers with existing food safety powers. Currently, if food is unsafe, it can be seized or detained and the 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, we have introduced the power to seize or detain food that does not meet food information requirements—in respect of labelling, for example—which will help to eliminate food fraud. Without such a power being available, a food business might still be able to pass on food that does not comply with food information law.

The bill also provides for the creation of a statutory offence of failure to report breaches of food information law. That will more closely align food standards requirements with the existing duty to report breaches of food safety legislation. Under the suggested arrangements, it would become an offence to fail to notify food standards Scotland if any person suspected that food did not comply with food information law.

The bill provides the Scottish ministers with powers to introduce a statutory scheme that, among other things, will require food businesses to display inspection outcomes. That is intended to drive up food hygiene standards and reduce the incidence of food-borne disease.

The bill will streamline Scotland’s food law enforcement regime by offering a range of new administrative sanctions so that offences will be dealt with more quickly and at less cost. That sanctions regime, which will comprise compliance notices and fixed penalties, will give enforcement officers more flexibility to deal appropriately with food offences. The use of administrative penalty options will reduce the burden on the courts and the costs to local authorities of prosecuting through the court system.

I will offer reassurances on some commitments that my predecessor gave at stage 2 to consider issues that were raised in amendments that the committee did not accept. I can confirm that, as with all public bodies, ministers will expect that as much as possible of the business of food standards Scotland in terms of board meetings and committee meetings will be conducted in public.

As a non-ministerial office, food standards Scotland will be operationally autonomous. However, to achieve transparency, section 5 of the bill requires food standards Scotland to set out, in a statement, how it will perform its functions. I will be responsible for signing off that statement and will have power to modify the statement if I consider that to be appropriate.

The statutory statement will have to include specific operational matters ranging from how consumer interests will be safeguarded to how reports are published and what business matters the board would not consider in public, and why. That statement of performance of functions will be an important mechanism, helping food standards Scotland to build public trust.

At stage 2, my predecessor also committed to exploring the practicability of introducing a scheme to encourage food business operators to report the outcomes of their testing and sampling. The Government has explored that further, and I can confirm that we will take the idea forward. Ministers already have legislative power to make regulations in that regard, so no amendment is required to the bill.

We must, first, concentrate on bedding in food standards Scotland with its current objectives and functions. However, during 2015, ministers will be expecting a public consultation on regulations to introduce a testing disclosure scheme. The details will be developed for consultation next year.

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

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that the Food (Scotland) Bill be passed.