Consultation on mobile traders food hygiene national standards

I - Ministerial Foreword

Better regulation has an important role to play in making Scotland a more successful country and providing a favourable business environment in which companies can grow and flourish.

This Government actively pursue policies which promote better regulation and we are working to deliver changes to the existing stock of regulation, the flow of new regulation and the culture to ensure that regulation is proportionate and effective.

We listen to business and remedy issues where we can. The Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 addressed concerns business and others raised and it seeks to improve the way regulations are developed and applied in Scotland. This included changes to the requirements for street traders’ licences to address concerns business raised with me about inconsistency and associated disproportionate costs.

These draft national standards for mobile traders food hygiene aim to provide the detail which is essential for the effective implementation of the new approach enshrined in the Act, providing clarity for local authority regulators and the mobile food business they regulate, and making it simpler for business operating across local authorities. By including operational as well as structural requirements they seek to promote and achieve this consistency and clarity even more widely.

Government, business and regulators must work in partnership to deliver better regulation, reduce and avoid barriers to growth and I am particularly grateful to Food Standards Scotland and to the Scottish Food Enforcement Liaison Committee who have given freely of their time, energy and expertise.

To ensure the solution delivers for all, I urge everyone with an interest to respond.

Fergus Ewing MSP
Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism