Regulation and legislation

FSS - the wider regulatory context

FSS has policy responsibility in Scotland across a wider area of food and feed law.  Our food and feed law guide provides a useful source of information on the law in which FSS and other competent authorities, including local authorities operate.  However laws that are made elsewhere have a direct effect on both policy and the law that applies to food and feed businesses in Scotland.

Internal Market Act

The Internal Market Act 2020 came into force on 1st January 2021.

The Act introduces a new market access regime for goods in the UK at the end of the transition period when EU Single Market rules no longer apply in the UK. The regime is based on the principles of:

1. mutual recognition – any good that meets regulatory requirements in one part of the UK can be sold in any other part, without having to adhere the relevant regulatory requirement in that other part; and
2. non-discrimination - a prohibition on direct or indirect discrimination based on treating local and incoming goods differently. It also provides for limited exclusions from these rules, based on individual policy areas.

Certain exclusions are provided for including where there is a serious risk to public health associated with food or feed and for certain regulations relating to the labelling and composition of animal feed.

The Act means that the law in force at any given time in England, Wales or Northern Ireland (in Northern Ireland EU law continues to apply) now applies to food and or feed supplied to Scotland from other parts of the UK, provided it is compliant with the law in the country in which it was produced. 

This means that unless the UK aligns with EU law in future, divergent approaches within the UK will emerge over time.

The Act requires local goods to be compliant with local law.  This means that if a food is manufactured using ingredients that are authorised elsewhere (but prohibited locally) then that product would be non-compliant with local law and could not be sold on the domestic market.

FSS continues to consider the full implications for food and feed law in Scotland arising from the Act.  Read the FSS response to the Internal Market White Paper and Bill.

Common frameworks

The UK Common Framework Programme aims to put in place mechanisms for how official and Ministers will work together to make any changes to law that was once harmonised at EU level.

FSS is responsible for working with its counterparts across the UK to develop common frameworks in the following areas

• Food and Feed Safety and Hygiene
• Nutrition Labelling Composition and Standards
• Food Labelling, Composition and Standards

The Scottish Parliament has published correspondence on frameworks on its website. 

Other useful links:

• Risk analysis
• Regulated products
• Memorandum of Understanding between Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland