Rural Payments and Services

Concerns about “arbitrarily adding costs to businesses” at a time when consumers are already facing a cost of living crisis have been raised by Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon.

The UK Government has proposed a roll out of ‘not for EU’ labelling on food and drink products across the whole of the UK from October, despite the fact that food labelling is a devolved matter.

The Food and Drink Federation Scotland has called for a proportionate alternative and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Mairi Gougeon has sought further clarification from the UK Government given “the information that has been provided to us so far is limited and does not currently represent a convincing argument or provide any real evidence… why this blanket measure is considered a proportionate approach.”

Background

No ‘real evidence’ for labelling burden on Scottish businesses - full news article (gov.scot)

GB-wide labelling proposal: letter to UK Government - (gov.scot)