In September 2025, the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee looked at the proposed first national Good Food Nation Plan, both in terms of its impact on rural affairs, agriculture and fisheries as well as the overall process of preparing the plan.   

The proposed national plan was laid in the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Government on 27 June 2025 for a 60-day period before it was finalised and published.

Read the proposed national Good Food Nation Plan

Under the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, the Scottish Government is required to produce a national Good Food Nation Plan which “sets out the Government’s goals for food policy and how it intends to achieve them”. The Act sets out a number of requirements regarding the Plan and the content it must include which are summarised as follows:

• the Plan must include the main outcomes in relation to food-related issues which the Scottish Ministers want to achieve
• the Plan must include indicators or other measures by which progress towards achieving the outcomes can be assessed
• the Plan must include the policies the Scottish Ministers intend to pursue in order to achieve the outcomes. It must also set out the Scottish Ministers’ plans for ensuring the implementation of these policies is informed by the views of the food business sector
• when determining the content of the Plan, the Scottish Ministers must have regard to the scope for food-related issues to affect outcomes in relation to a list of specified subject areas (although other areas may also be considered)
• when preparing the Plan, the Scottish Ministers must have regard to a set of five specific principles and a list of international instruments that are set out in the Act

Before finalising the plan at the end of the 60-day period, the Scottish Government is required to have regard to:  

• any representations about the proposed plan that are made to it
• any resolution relating to the proposed plan passed by the Parliament
• any report relating to the proposed plan published by any committee of the Parliament

The Committee took evidence from a range of stakeholders at its meeting on 3 September 2025 and submitted a copy of the Official Report from that meeting to the Scottish Government as its representation about the proposed national plan.

Read the Official Report from the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee’s meeting on 3 September 2025

Read the SPICe blog post ‘Next steps towards a Good Food Nation – do we have the right plan?’ published on 1 September 2025

Read the SPICe blog post ‘Recent developments in food policy across the UK’ published on 1 September 2025

Both the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee and the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee also looked at the proposed first national Good Food Nation Plan.

First national Good Food Nation Plan

The Scottish Government published its first national Good Food Nation Plan on 17 December.

Read the first national Good Food Nation Plan

At the same time, an accompanying statement was published setting out how the Scottish Government had regard to the Scottish Parliament's scrutiny of the proposed national Good Food Nation Plan and how parliamentary scrutiny informed the finalised plan.

Read the accompanying statement published at the same time as the first national Good Food Nation Plan

The draft Good Food Nation (Specified Functions and Descriptions) (Scottish Ministers) Regulations 2025

The Scottish Ministers only need to have regard to the national Good Food Nation Plan when exercising a specified function or a function of a specified description. These functions are to be specified in secondary legislation.

The above draft regulations were laid on 27 October 2025 and were considered by the Committee at its meeting on 3 December 2025.  The Committee took evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and then decided, by division, not to agree to recommend to Parliament that the regulations be approved.  Further information is available on the Committee’s webpages.

Read about the Committee’s scrutiny of the draft Good Food Nation (Specified Functions and Descriptions) (Scottish Ministers) Regulations 2025