Committee
Criminal Justice Committee 25 September 2024
25 Sep 2024 · S6 · Criminal Justice Committee
Item of business
Food Standards Scotland (Tackling Food Crime)
The witnesses will know better than anyone else here that the nature of what can be counterfeited is limitless—it can be tobacco, tea bags and all sorts of other products. One story that was in the news recently was your seizure of vodka in Coatbridge. The bottles were branded and, to the untrained eye, would have looked legitimate. Will you give us a sense of what is happening with that investigation? Have you since found more bottles from the same group?
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Our next item of business is an evidence session on food crime. I refer members to paper 3. I intend to allow about 60 minutes for this evidence session. I...
Ron McNaughton (Food Standards Scotland)
Thank you. First, I offer my thanks to the committee for giving Ian and me the opportunity to provide information on the work that Food Standards Scotland is...
The Convener
SNP
That was a helpful setting of the scene. I will ask a general question by way of a follow-up to your opening remarks. You spoke about the importance of coll...
Ron McNaughton
I will start by giving an example of our work on the global side. We co-lead operation Opson, which is an annual Europol-led operation that aims to tackle un...
The Convener
SNP
When we talk about the global context, an issue that crosses my mind is the impact of Brexit. Has that had any impact on co-operation arrangements that were ...
Ron McNaughton
Prior to Brexit, we were members of the European food fraud network, which meant that we regularly met the other European member states, and we had access to...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you for that. Ian, would you like to come in?
Ian McWatt (Food Standards Scotland)
Yes, thank you. Ron was being modest—we are a small unit, but Scotland certainly punches above its weight. As Ron mentioned, following the horsemeat incident...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much—that was fascinating. I will now bring in other members, starting with Russell Findlay.
Russell Findlay (West Scotland) (Con)
Con
The witnesses will know better than anyone else here that the nature of what can be counterfeited is limitless—it can be tobacco, tea bags and all sorts of o...
Ron McNaughton
The important thing about the vodka is to try to disrupt the activity. While the investigation continues, with support from Police Scotland, it is important ...
Russell Findlay
Con
Have the 1,600 visits been in all 32 local authority areas?
Ron McNaughton
We have had responses from 30 local authority areas, with 1,600 targeted visits. So far, we have recovered about 230 bottles of vodka, which is not a huge am...
Russell Findlay
Con
I might be surmising slightly, but it is possible that some of the stock was sold outwith a retail environment. We do not know, do we?
Ron McNaughton
Alcohol had been a priority for us in our control strategy, and the strange thing was that we had not seen an awful lot of intelligence on counterfeit alcoho...
Russell Findlay
Con
Were the 230 bottles from one geographical part of Scotland? Were they all from Lanarkshire, or were they from further afield?
Ron McNaughton
They were mostly from the central belt. Most of the bottles were recovered from nine premises in eight local authority areas.
Russell Findlay
Con
Are you working with Police Scotland to try to establish the source? Each retailer will have bought the stock from somewhere. That is the big question.
Ron McNaughton
How FSS is set up provides a huge benefit in that regard. We have an incidents team, so we can look at the incidents from the perspective of food safety and ...
Russell Findlay
Con
On Monday, the minimum unit price for alcohol will rise from 50p to 65p. There has been speculation that that might provide a further incentive for organised...
Ron McNaughton
That has always been a concern. When minimum pricing for alcohol was introduced, there was always a concern that people in certain demographic groups might l...
Russell Findlay
Con
If it is too good to be true, it is.
Ron McNaughton
That is a cliché, but it is pretty much the case. People should consider the price, whether there are any issues with the labelling and whether the bottles a...
Ian McWatt
Russell Findlay is absolutely right to ask whether we are concerned about the issue. I need to remain conscious of the fact that Food Standards Scotland is a...
Russell Findlay
Con
It probably costs less than a quid to produce a bottle of fake vodka.
Ian McWatt
I would not want to put a figure on it, but sophisticated technologies, production systems and distribution systems have been put in place. We find that the ...
Russell Findlay
Con
Does each batch need to be tested separately, for legal purposes?
Ian McWatt
Absolutely. There are things that we can do quickly, such as a sniff test, because the alcohol will smell off.
Russell Findlay
Con
You can seize products if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they are fake, and you can then get them tested.
Ian McWatt
Yes. As you have probably seen from our briefing or the public notices that we have put out, the bottles and the labelling are different.