Future arrangements to secure food standards and safety in Scotland

Chapter 4 - Impact of current and future changes on Scotland

20. Machinery of Government Changes

20.1 In July 2010 a number of Machinery of Government (MOG) changes were announced. Nutrition policy and nutrition labelling in England were transferred from the FSA to the UK Department of Health on 1 October 2010. This included front of pack nutrition labelling, health and nutrition claims, dietetic food and food supplements; calorie information in catering establishments; reformulation to reduce salt, saturated fat and sugar levels in food; reducing portion size (including in catering establishments); and nutrition surveys and research. The Department of Health also became responsible for the work of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). Responsibility for nutrition policy in Wales was subsequently transferred to the Welsh Government on 1 October 2010. The FSA continues to be responsible for labelling in Wales and nutrition and labelling in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

20.2 Defra became responsible for non-safety-related food labelling and food composition policies in England. This included food labelling, where this does not relate to food safety or nutrition; food composition policy, standards and labelling (agreeing the components and standards for characterising products such as honey, jam, chocolate, ice-cream or meat content of sausages), where unrelated to food safety; country of origin labelling; and leading on EU negotiations for all non-safety aspects of food labelling, except for nutrition. The FSA continues to be responsible for these in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

20.3 As a result of these changes in England, 71.8 full time equivalent (FTE) staff transferred to DH on 1 October 2011 (53.9 FTE core nutrition; 8.8 FTE analytical support, 10.0 FTE communications support). The associated transferred staff costs made up £3.868m of the total £14.327m baseline budget transfer from FSA to DH. A total of 21.6 FTE staff transferred to Defra. The associated transferred staff costs made up £0.940m of the total £1.732m baseline budget transfer from FSA to Defra.

20.4 Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley MP, said: "The transfer … means we can give the general public more consistent information. It will also mean a more coordinated and coherent policy-making process; and a more effective potential partnership between Government and external stakeholders."

20.5 The transfer of nutrition and labelling and standards from the FSA marked a major change in the way policies were developed and the availability of experts to support the policy development. There were a number of consequences:

• There is no longer a statutory obligation of primacy for consumer interests when developing nutrition and labelling policy in England
• As nutrition and labelling policy is developed by and within UK Government Departments, there is the potential for discussions and decision making to be held behind closed doors and for the evidence base either to be ignored or not to be established in the first place. This may make it harder for representatives of consumers and the research community to challenge policies.
• Responsibility for policy-making on food safety, nutrition and non-food-safety labelling is now split between DH, Defra and the FSA in England, but a number of issues require all three aspects to be considered: for example issues such as animal cloning involve issues of food safety, and consumer information/ choice.
• The transfer of staff from FSA to DH and to Defra meant that their expertise in nutrition and labelling was no longer formally available to FSA staff working on these issues for Scotland, Wales (labelling only) and Northern Ireland. As nutrition and labelling priorities changed in England, and as staff moved, the informal links have weakened.
• As DH is now responsible for SACN, there is no formal means for devolved priorities to be fed into SACN's work programme, though the Chief Medical Officers can request advice. The FSA was not given a seat in respect of its responsibilities for nutrition in Scotland and Northern Ireland; the Scottish Government offered it their observer seat. The remit for SACN is currently under review.
• FSA Scotland were denied access to the Eatwell website, which was previously a UK-wide resource and had been removed following the Machinery of Government changes. A separate Scottish website has had to be set up.

21. Regulatory Reform in England

21.1 Reducing regulation is a key priority for the Coalition Government. The Reducing Regulation Committee (RRC), a Cabinet sub-Committee, has been established to take strategic oversight of the delivery of the Government's regulatory framework. It has broad terms of reference to consider issues relating to regulation. These include scrutinising, challenging and approving all new regulatory proposals as well as proposals for transposing EU obligations. All regulatory proposals in England must be submitted for clearance to the RRC and be accompanied by the Regulatory Policy Committee's opinion of the impact assessment supporting the proposal.

21.2 In addition the One-in, One-out (OIOO) rule means that no new primary or secondary UK legislation which imposes costs on business or civil society organisations can be brought in without the identification of existing regulations with an equivalent value that can be removed. Policy-makers will need to think about identifying a corresponding regulatory policy that can be removed early in the policy development process.

21.3 To support the effective operation of the OIOO rule and to help make sure that collective management of regulatory policy is based on good quality evidence, the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) - an independent external body - will provide external scrutiny of the impact assessments of all new regulatory proposals (and the associated proposed 'OUTs' under the OIOO rule) being brought forward by departments, including those implementing EU legislation.

21.4 These arrangements only apply to England. The consequence is that if the FSA wish to introduce new regulations they have to go through a complex procedure which will take time and need considerable input to justify the introduction of the new regulations. This raises the issue as to whether the situation in England could lead to unnecessary delays moving ahead with important public protection measures in Scotland. The FSA board in a recent discussion, emphasised the need to ensure consistency, but also recognised that it should not move at the slowest pace. The Panel did hear concerns that there had been delays on some issues since the changes were bedding down, but the FSA now seems keen to show that it is prepared to move at different paces when needed. It is, however, too early to tell if there will be any problems applying this approach in practice.

21.5 There are a number of other reviews either underway or recently commissioned that will have a bearing on the FSA going forward. Any recommendations flowing from these reviews will have to be considered and fed into any changes that come from decisions taken by Scottish Ministers regarding this report.

22. Review of official controls

22.1 The FSA is currently undertaking a review of official controls delivery in the UK. It is working closely with industry and enforcement bodies like local authorities. This review will look at all food safety and standards official controls undertaken by local authorities and port health authorities, which fall within the Agency's remit. This will include:

• food hygiene in all UK countries
• food safety issues for food composition and labelling in all UK countries
• food traceability and imports in all UK countries
• feed hygiene, composition, labelling, traceability and imports in Great Britain
• the adequacy of laboratory and analytical support for delivering official controls.

22.2 There are four key stages to the review:

• outlining the principles and outcomes and identifying, collating and analysing evidence, which will be completed by March 2013
• describing and comparing the different options, which will be completed by July 2013
• consultation on the recommendations from September 2013 to March 2014
• implementation from April 2014 onwards

22.3 Ultimately this review may make recommendations for changes in the way in which official controls are delivered across the UK. It is considering different models and whether a centralist approach is needed for example, different models around the UK, or whether the status quo should be maintained. This will have implications for the way that official controls are delivered in Scotland. It is feasible in that situation that the final review may conclude that different systems are appropriate in devolved countries. Scottish Ministers will ultimately decide on the approach that should be followed in Scotland.

23. Capability review of the FSA

23.1 The UK Government announced a Capability Review of the FSA in March 2012. It will follow the model of self-assessment set out in the Cabinet Office Capability Review framework. An external panel will be put in place to provide challenge and will be supported by a secretariat from within the FSA. The review is due to report at the end of spring 2012.

23.2 The review will consider whether, following the reconfiguration of functions within the FSA, the new arrangements are working as envisaged. The review should also provide reassurance that the Agency has robust capability to face future challenges and to achieve a high level of performance over the medium term.

24. Impact of Scottish Government policies and reviews

24.1 The Scottish Government has committed to holding a referendum to ask whether Scotland should become an independent country. The independence referendum consultation^[15], Your Scotland, Your Referendum was launched by the First Minister on January 25, 2012 and it closes on 11 May.

24.2 The Scottish Government is committed to protecting and improving public services; to improving performance and efficiency; and to simplifying the delivery landscape. The purpose of the programme is to review and simplify Scotland's landscape of national public bodies and achieve more effective government. In particular, it aimed to make financial savings and achieve the wider benefits of:

• improved user focus
• more coherent decision making and leadership
• more effective and clearer delivery structures
• more co-ordinated approaches to key strategic challenges
• enhanced links between policy development and delivery by drawing some arms length bodies into core government.

24.3 The Government has reduced the number of public bodies from a baseline of 199 in October 2007 to 144, and on present plans this will reduce further to around 112, exceeding its original commitment to a 25% reduction.

24.4 Audit Scotland plans to audit consumer protection services, including some FSA functions, as part of its 2012/13 work programme.

24.5 The Scottish Government policy on simplifying the delivery landscape is relevant to this feasibility study as the creation of new delivery bodies would not be acceptable unless there is strong justification for doing so.