Scottish Government to Good Food Nation - Which? response

Which? is the largest consumer organisation in the UK with over 1.3 million members and supporters, more than 110,000 of whom live in Scotland. We operate as an independent, a-political, social enterprise working for all consumers and funded solely by our commercial ventures. We receive no government money, public donations, or other fundraising income. Which?’s mission is to make individuals as powerful as the organisations they have to deal with in their daily lives, by empowering them to make informed decisions and by campaigning to make people’s lives fairer, simpler and safer

Summary

We strongly support the placing of a requirement on Scottish Ministers to publish a statement of policy on food, along with indicators of success. These statements should help to ensure that policy is aligned and focused on the same priorities across different government portfolios. The indicators to measure success should be developed transparently and reflect consumers’ priorities.
Rather than reporting on progress every two years, there should instead be a requirement for annual reporting of progress against the policy statement.
We agree that this approach should also apply to relevant public bodies and that there should be a legal requirement for public bodies to co-operate in the delivery of the food policy, taking into account the agreed indicators.
While a new statutory body should not be necessary to over-see the Good Food Nation policy, further consideration should be given to the institutional mechanisms needed to ensure effective co-ordination across government, public bodies and wider stakeholders.

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