Burning red tape – or a Brexit race to the bottom?

FOOD SAFETY regulations adopted during the UK’s long tenure in the European Union are to be scrapped in the Truss Government’s aggressive drive against ‘red tape’.

Food Standards Scotland this week warned of major risks and impacts to Scottish consumers in relation to food safety and standards if Westminster’s new Retained EU Law (Reform and Revocation) Bill is progressed in its current form.

The Bill was heralded as the mechanism by which laws inherited from the EU could be amended, replaced or repealed – but its publication last week revealed that it would remove consumer protections relating to food which have applied in Scotland and the rest of the UK for many years, and do so without allowing time to get equivalent domestic rules in place.

Retained EU law currently obligates businesses to label for allergens and provide clear food information to consumers; it also restricts the use of decontaminants on meat, for example chlorine washes on chicken, as well as setting maximum permitted levels of chemical contaminants in food.

Unless action is taken to adapt 47 years’ worth of EU regulations into Scottish or UK law, a task requiring ‘substantial resource in an extraordinarily short timeframe’, these safeguards will disappear on December 31, 2023.

Chair of FSS, Heather Kelman, commented: “At the heart of what we do, is our responsibility to protect Scottish consumers. This Bill, as it currently stands, poses a significant risk to Scotland’s ability to uphold the high safety and food standards which the public expects and deserves.

“Much of the legislation which could be repealed as a result of the sun-setting clause has been developed over the course of decades and with significant UK input and influence,” said Ms Kelman. “It exists to ensure consumer safety through the protection of the most vulnerable and ensuring the food and feed which is on the market is safe.

“This Bill could lead to a significant hole where consumer protections sit. The purpose of regulators and regulations, especially in relation to food, is to protect consumers. This Bill confuses ‘red tape’ with consumer protection and indicates that the latter is now less of a priority and of less importance than when we were in the EU.

“Whichever way consumers voted on Brexit, they did not vote for a race to the bottom of lower standards and a de-regulated landscape that reduces consumer protection,” she said. “We cannot imagine that this is what the UK Government intends.”

The SNP’s Cabinet Office spokesperson Brendan O’Hara MP, said: “Just like the Tories’ Internal Market Bill, the ‘Brexit Freedoms’ Bill is another attempt at a power-grab on Scotland and threatens vital protections – yet Liz Truss and her Cabinet are determined to push it through anyway.

“With the UK government imposing such a reckless deadline, there is a real risk that laws protecting rights and standards could simply drop off the statute books overnight,” said Mr O’Hara.

“Not only has the Tories’ hard Brexit taken a sledgehammer to our economy and living standards, the Westminster government has attempted to use it on multiple occasions now to undermine the Scottish Government and democracy, making clear that their ‘union of equals’ rhetoric is utterly hollow.”