The paper comes following an announcement in April that the Scottish National Party would cap the price of supermarket essentials if it were re-elected. In May, the party won the majority and was re-elected with 58 seats.
In a statement, Tom Arthur MSP, Minister for Business and Fair Work, said that he was seeking views on a cap on the price of essential food items such as bread, milk and eggs “with the aim of improving the affordability of food for households facing cost of living pressures, particularly those on lower incomes”. He went on to say that in designing any intervention, Government would consider impacts on nutrition and health.
Scottish Government said it was seeking views on:
- What types of Government interventions would be best to help with food affordability
- How any caps on food prices could be made to work effectively and proportionately
- What approaches to price capping could help Government to achieve its aims
- How a price cap scheme could work, for example in the choice of items that would be capped or how prices are set
- How to prevent or minimise any unintended effects of a price cap.
David Thomson, chief executive officer of Food and Drink Federation Scotland, said: “Despite publishing a very lengthy consultation paper running to nine chapters, the Scottish Government still cannot answer some of the most basic questions about its food price cap plans, including which products would actually be capped.
“These proposals are causing major concern across Scotland’s food and drink supply chain. Businesses that make food and drink in Scotland are increasingly questioning whether the Scottish Government understands, or cares, about the pressures they face and the contribution they make to Scotland’s economy.
“Food price caps will not address the underlying causes of food inflation. Food and drink manufacturers continue to face high energy, labour, commodity, packaging and regulatory costs. Capping the shelf price of selected products does nothing to remove those costs and will simply push them elsewhere.
“The Scottish Government must listen to the evidence, recognise the risks and drop its plans for food price caps. Instead, ministers should focus on tackling the real drivers of food inflation and creating the conditions for long-term affordability, investment and growth.”
Scottish Retail Consortium warns of high costs
Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “It’s five months since the proposal to cap grocery prices was unveiled and there seems little evidence Ministers have the first idea how to deliver the policy. We don’t know which products will be affected, what the prices will be, for how long, how the scheme will be delivered, let alone who will enforce it. The only new detail is Scottish Ministers want to target the largest grocery retailers.
“What the lengthy consultation paper does show is how fiendishly complex, costly, and onerous this unnecessary exercise will be if it is implemented. The rules on product substitution alone would lead to products being pulled off shelves and risk shortages on the shelves. There is a paucity of detail on how to help Scottish farmers and producers who could see products replaced with cheaper imports. Ironically one element the paper does confirm is that we have a robust competitive grocery market – which Ministers don’t seem to recognise obviates the need for statutory price caps in the first place.
“Ministers have fluffed the chance to provide the clarity retailers and the supply chain have repeatedly asked for. They should scrap the cap and work with industry to get on top of inflation – including public policy costs.”
The consultation will close on Wednesday 25th November 2026.
