Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Official Report 631KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Compliance Notices) Regulations 2023 (SSI 2023/161)

The next item on our agenda is consideration of two negative instruments. The first instrument is SSI 2023/161, the purpose of which is to list offences in relation to which compliance notices, as set out in the Food (Scotland) Act 2015, may be used as an alternative to criminal proceedings. The relevant offences relate to food information, food composition standards, novel foods, foods for specific groups and food contact materials.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the instrument at its meeting on 13 June 2023 and has drawn the Parliament’s attention to a cross-referencing error: paragraph 33 of the schedule should refer to regulation 4 of the Novel Foods (Scotland) Regulations 2017 instead of regulation 6(2). The committee noted that the Scottish Government intends to correct that error at the earliest opportunity. No motion to annul has been lodged in relation to the instrument. Do members have any?comments to make?

I do. Given my interest in food standards and how we are altering and changing them as we engage in things such as novel foods, I am interested in paragraph 9 of the policy note, which is about monitoring. It says:

“Food Standards Scotland will work with Local Authorities where problems or suspected infringements of the legislation arise.”

I am interested to know—we might need to write to Food Standards Scotland about this—how Food Standards Scotland will work with local authorities. How will we monitor that? I ask that out of general interest.

Is the committee content to write to FSS on that basis?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you. Can I confirm that the committee has no recommendations to make on the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

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National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023 (SSI 2023/173)

The purpose of the second instrument, SSI 2023/173, is to ensure that overseas visitors from certain British overseas territories will not be charged for certain treatment provided by health boards in Scotland, in accordance with healthcare agreements. The instrument inserts a further five territories—Ascension Island, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, and Tristan da Cunha—into schedule 2 of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Scotland) Regulations 1989.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the instrument at its meeting on 13 June 2023 and made no recommendations on it. No motion to annul has been lodged. Do members have any comments?

Members indicated disagreement.

As members have no comments, I propose that the committee makes no recommendations on the instrument. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you very much. Our next meeting will be a session with the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care based on the evidence that we have gathered as part of our recent scrutiny of front-line NHS boards.

That concludes the public part of today’s meeting.

11:08 Meeting continued in private until 11:44.