Scottish Government - Price Controls on Essential Food Items: consultation paper
On 1st September, The Scottish Government has published its ‘Price Controls on Essential Food Items: Consultation Paper’, seeking views on the potential introduction of legal price controls on selected essential food items. A press release and Partial Business & Regulatory Impact Assessment were also shared.
The consultation is looking at whether price controls should be introduced, which products and businesses they should apply to, and how such a scheme would operate in practice. The consultation closes on 25 November 2026.
The consultation is seeking views on a range of issues such as:
Whether price controls should be introduced for essential food items.
Which food items should be covered and how those products should be defined.
Which businesses should be subject to the scheme.
How maximum prices should be set and subsequently updated.
How the scheme should operate, including compliance and enforcement.
How the potential impacts on producers, retailers, consumers and the wider food supply chain should be addressed.
How the scheme should be monitored, reviewed and amended over time.
Key proposals
Legal maximum prices
The proposed model would introduce an item-level price cap for specified essential food products. So, where a qualifying retailer offers a specified product for sale, it would have to offer at least one qualifying variety at or below the maximum price. Scottish Government indicate that this has been selected as the illustrative model for consultation because it is relatively straightforward for consumers to understand and for retailers and regulators to monitor.
The consultation also seeks views on alternative approaches to an item-level price cap, including:
Putting in place a temporary price freeze on food items.
Capping the profit that retailers could make on a specified product.
Introducing mandatory discounting on specified products.
Introducing a requirement for a whole basket of goods to be sold at a maximum price (with the price of individual products at the retailer’s discretion, provided within the total basket allowance).
No general stocking requirement
Scottish Government are not proposing a duty to stock specific price capped items, only that if a retailer does offer a specified food product for sale at a particular store or website, then at least one type or variety of that product must be offered at or below the cap at that store or website. They are also looking at the proposal that if a price capped item sells out, then the retailer should be required to sell an alternative at the capped price (if available and on sale to customers).
Products covered
No final list of products has been established however; the price cap would only include food and non-alcoholic drinks for human consumption. Scottish Government indicate that it is not intended that caps would apply to other goods, such as cleaning products, toiletries or pet food. The price cap would apply to essential food items – those basic products which are considered part of a nutritious and balanced diet.
Businesses in scope
The current proposal is focused on large supermarket businesses; however, the proposed criteria are based on the size of the business as a whole rather than individual store size and may target small independent convenience stores operating under a symbol group or franchise model.
A business would potentially be in scope where it:
has more than 250 employees;
has annual turnover of more than £250 million; and
derives more than 50% of annual turnover from groceries.
The consultation specifically asks whether this is the appropriate way to define the businesses that should be subject to the scheme.
Setting and updating prices
The maximum prices would be established through regulations. The Government is considering how these prices should be calculated, including the use of recent retail prices as a basis. It is also considering how price caps should be updated over time, including the possibility of linking changes to inflation or another measure.
Compliance and enforcement
The proposed framework includes compliance notices for businesses that fail to meet the requirements. The consultation also considers the role of local authorities in enforcement and the circumstances in which breaches could become offences subject to penalties.
Next steps
SGF will review the proposals in detail and will submit a response by the deadline.
We will consider the potential implications for convenience retailers, including the proposed scope of the scheme, the products that could be covered, how price caps would be set, and the proposed compliance and enforcement arrangements.
