Rural Affairs and Islands Committee 03 December 2025
There is quite a lot to pick up on in that question. I will work through it as best I can.
I absolutely appreciate your points about the amount of work that has gone into the good food nation plan, as well as the legislation, which started at the beginning of this session, with the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 following soon after. I appreciate that the committee took evidence in relation to the publication of the draft good food nation plan, but I assure you that I and officials have appeared in front of two other committees of the Scottish Parliament. It was welcome to see other areas having that interest in the good food nation work and to go through that scrutiny process in detail. I will, of course, keep the committee updated when we publish the final version of the plan, based on the recommendations that came out of that scrutiny, including from other committees.
I reiterate that the specified functions and descriptions can appear quite technical or difficult to understand, but what we are doing involves a quite exciting and innovative approach. There are have-regard duties in other pieces of legislation; this is about putting the have-regard duty into practice to make sure that we have joined-up policy working across the piece and across Government and that the good food nation plan and its outcomes are being considered in the development of policies.
The functions and descriptions have been set out between the two schedules. Schedule 1 covers the specified functions—that is, where there is a specific legislative power or regulation-making duty, in the exercise of which ministers would be expected to have regard to the good food nation plan. However, there are of course a number of non-statutory areas in which we would want to consider the good food nation plan, and those are covered by the descriptions.
As I set out in my opening remarks, we have tried to be comprehensive. That has involved extensive working across Government. We have listened to what came through the consultation and have had engagement with stakeholders. However, it was important to get a balance. If a duty is too broad, the concern is that it will become more of a tick-box exercise, rather than addressing and considering the issue in a meaningful way. That is why we have taken the approach that I have outlined.
However, I emphasise again that this is the starting point, not the finishing point. If, as the work develops, it emerges that areas have been missed, we will look to add those to further legislation, through another SSI.