UK Offence Report

The Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025

Scottish Statutory Instrument 2025 No. 303 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
29 October 2025
In force from
1 October 2026
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Alcohol licensing, gambling, smoke-free and public health
Made under
(EC) No. 178/2002, Food (Scotland) Act 2015, Food Safety Act 1990

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations provide for restrictions on the promotion and placement of certain foods and drinks that are less healthy. Regulation 2 sets out interpretative provisions. Regulation 3 defines the food and drink to which the Regulations apply (“specified food”). Specified food is food contained in a prepacked food item which is schedule food (i.e. is listed in the schedule), less healthy (as defined in paragraph (4)) and not food to which paragraph (5) applies. Paragraph (5) applies to food provided by charitable bodies in certain circumstances, and at single charitable events. Whether food is “less healthy” is to be determined in accordance with the Nutrient Profile Technical Guidance. Regulation 4 defines the businesses to which the regulations apply (“qualifying businesses”). Provision is made so that businesses with less than 50 employees are not qualifying businesses. Exceptions are also made for providers of care homes services, schools and restaurants (including a café, coffee shop, fast food or takeaway business). Restaurants are not exempt from regulation 6 (restrictions on the price promotion of certain drinks). Paragraphs (3) to (6) provides for how to determine the number of employees a businesses has when operating under a franchise agreement. Regulation 5 prohibits qualifying businesses from offering certain volume price promotions of specified food. The restricted promotions are multi-buy promotions (including “3 for the price of 2”, “3 for £10”, or “buy six and save 25%”), or a promotion that indicates an item (or any part of an item) is free (including “50% extra free” or “buy one get one free”). Regulation 6 prohibits qualifying businesses from offering free refill promotions of certain soft drinks containing added sugar ingredients. It applies to drinks which are not prepacked, fall within category 1 of the schedule, are less healthy, and are not food to which regulation 3(5) applies (which makes provision for charitable activities). “Free refill promotion” is defined in paragraph (3). Regulation 7 prohibits qualifying businesses from placing specified food in certain locations in a store. Paragraph (1) provides for restrictions relating to placing food within 2 metres of checkout facilities, within 2 metres of designated queuing areas, at end of aisle displays, on separate structures near end of aisle displays, within a prohibited distance from public entrances, and in covered external areas. Paragraph (2) exempts specialist retailers and stores with a relevant floor area of less than 185.8m2. Paragraph (3) provides definitions for the purposes of regulation 7. A store’s “relevant floor area” is defined at paragraph (3)(f). It is the internal floor area of so much of a store as consists of or is comprised in a building, subject to certain exclusions. Excluded are areas not used for displaying goods or serving customers (e.g. storage areas), areas used mainly for preparation or sale of food for immediate consumption (e.g. a coffee shop or canteen), medical consulting rooms (e.g. a pharmacy or opticians within a store), and any area occupied by a concession. Areas occupied by concessions are considered to be separate stores under the Regulations. The “prohibited distance” is defined at paragraph (3)(e) as the smaller of 15 metres or the distance (in metres) produced by applying the equation set out. In most cases, this calculation is based on a store’s “relevant floor area”. In the case of public entrances that open directly onto food halls, the calculation is not based on the relevant floor area of the larger store but is instead based only on the area used by the food hall (subject to certain exclusions). Excluded is any part which is used not for the sale of goods, or areas used for the preparation or sale of food for immediate consumption. There are no specific exclusions for areas occupied by concessions or medical services as they are not relevant to food halls. This alternative method of calculating the prohibited distance only applies for public entrances to a store that directly enter onto food halls, not other public entrances to the store or internal entrances within a store. “Food halls” is defined at paragraph (3)(d). Food halls are distinct areas, within larger stores (occupied by the same business), which are dedicated (wholly or mainly) to the display or serving of customers in connection with the sale of food items, where the area has dedicated checkout facilities and is clearly distinct from the rest of the store (e.g. has dedicated entrances). Food halls that have these features are considered similar to stand alone food stores but within a larger store occupied by a single business. Regulation 8 prohibits qualifying businesses from placing specified food in certain locations of an online marketplace. Paragraph (1) makes provision to restrict the offering of specified food for sale on a home page, while a consumer is searching or browsing for other products, on pages not opened intentionally (such as a “pop up” pages), on a favourite products page, or on a checkout page. Paragraph (2) provides that the regulation does not prohibit offering food for sale on any page opened intentionally by a consumer for the purposes of browsing special offers generally. An exemption is provided for specialist retailers at paragraph (3). Paragraphs (4) and (5) set out circumstances in which specified food can be offered for sale while a consumer is searching or browsing. Regulation 9 requires each food authority to enforce and execute the Regulations in its area. The food authorities are the councils constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Regulation 10 makes it an offence to fail to comply with the restrictions in regulations 5, 6 ,7 and 8. The penalty on conviction of an offence is a fine up to level 4 on the standard scale. Regulation 11 applies with modifications various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990. Principally these relate to enforcement matters, including powers of entry and offences relating to the obstruction of officers. Regulation 12 amends the Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Compliance Notices) Regulations 2023 (the “2023 Regulations”), to specify that the offences created under regulation 10 of these Regulations are relevant offences for the purposes of Part 3 of the Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (the “2015 Act”) as it applies to compliance notices. This enables compliance notices to be issued by food authorities in respect of offences under these Regulations, in accordance with the procedure set out in Part 3 of the 2015 Act and the 2023 Regulations. A Business Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies can be obtained from the Tobacco, Gambling, Diet and Healthy Weight Unit, Scottish Government, St Andrew’s House, 2 Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service has no record of this instrument, although it covers the period. Nothing is inferred from that.

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