Our response to Scottish Government consultation on restricting promotions on food and drink high in fat, sugar and salt - September 2022

The Scottish Government are currently consulting on their proposals for restricting price and location promotions of food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar. The primary aim of the policy is to reduce the public health harms associated with the excess consumption of calories, fat, sugar and salt. 

The consultation is seeking views on the following proposals:

• Introducing restrictions on promotions of additional food categories beyond so-called ‘discretionary foods’ (foods that provide little or no nutritional benefit and are not necessary for a healthy diet)
• Types of promotions that should be restricted
• Places where restrictions should apply, including possible exemptions
• Enforcement and implementation of the proposed restrictions
• Impact on business and health inequalities
• Potential for policy consistency with the equivalent UK Government restrictions for England

In our response, we outline the importance of ensuring as many types of price and location promotions as possible are included in the regulations to ensure a fair and consistent approach and avoid loopholes. We disagree with the proposals to include only pre-packed items and also with the overall aim of the policy being reformulation. The aim of the policy must be dietary improvement. We support the proposal to include temporary price reductions (TPRs) in the legislation, as these are the most commonly used type of price promotion. In terms of categories of products the restrictions should apply to, our preference is for Option 2, Discretionary foods + ice cream and dairy desserts. Restrictions should be category based, applying to all products within a category, to help ease understanding, regulation and enforcement. 

Our key asks for policy action are:

• Promotions restrictions should apply to as many types of price and location promotions as possible, including multi-buys, loyalty pricing, checkouts and end of aisles displays
• Promotions on discretionary HFSS products are covered by a blanket restriction based on the category descriptor, as based on the WHO Europe NPM
• Temporary Price Reduction promotions to be included in any price promotion restrictions
• Restrictions on price promotions must include non-pre-packed products
• Promotions restrictions must also apply online, for both price and location promotions
• Restrictions on promotions must apply across both retail and OOH
• Businesses must be enabled, encouraged and incentivised to increase the amount of healthy foods on promotion

The consultation closes on 23rd September 2022.