Scottish Ministers have revoked the regulation that would have started section 6 of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 on 16 December 2025. The revocation instrument was signed on 11 December, laid on 12 December, and takes effect on 15 December. It cancels the earlier Commencement No. 4 Regulations (SSI 2025/291), which had appointed 16 December as the date for section 6 to come into force. As a result, section 6 will not commence on that date.
Revoking a commencement regulation does not remove the provision from the statute book. It simply withdraws the appointed day, leaving the provision prospective until a fresh commencement instrument is made. In practical terms, the statutory duty linked to section 6 will not apply until a new commencement date is set.
Section 6, when in force, requires Scottish Ministers to have regard to the national Good Food Nation Plan when exercising a function listed in regulations or a function that falls within a description listed in regulations. Until commencement, that legal duty to consider the Plan does not bind ministerial decision‑making.
The now‑revoked Commencement No. 4 Regulations, made on 23 October and laid on 27 October, would have brought section 6 into force on 16 December 2025. Those regulations also recorded the staged commencement of other parts of the Act since 2023, including duties to prepare, review and report on Good Food Nation Plans. These remain unaffected by the revocation.
Parliament has been scrutinising the Good Food Nation (Specified Functions and Descriptions) (Scottish Ministers) Regulations 2025, which define where the section 6 duty would apply. The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee took evidence on 3 December and the committee paper indicated the draft regulations were intended to take effect on 23 December, subject to approval. The motion to approve (S6M‑19472) was lodged on 29 October.
The national Good Food Nation Plan itself was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 27 June 2025 and is due to be finalised by the end of December 2025 following committee scrutiny. This schedule is separate from the commencement of section 6, which governs how Ministers must use the Plan once the duty is active.
For central government policy teams, the immediate effect is that any internal guidance to ‘have regard’ to the Plan remains policy‑led rather than a statutory requirement for the time being. Programme leads should continue preparing for the duty by mapping which decisions are likely to fall within the forthcoming specified functions or descriptions, but they should note that non‑compliance with section 6 cannot be cited legally until commencement and the functions regulations are in place.
Local authorities and health boards are not directly affected by this change to ministerial commencement. Their duties to prepare, publish, review and report on their own Good Food Nation Plans arise under different provisions of the 2022 Act that are already in force, and those obligations continue on the existing timetable.
Like most commencement instruments, the earlier Commencement No. 4 Regulations were not subject to parliamentary procedure; the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee noted no points when considering that instrument in November. A similar procedural position applies to revocation instruments of this type.
What to watch next is straightforward: a fresh commencement regulation setting a new appointed day for section 6, and the final form of the specified functions regulations defining where the duty will apply. Once both are in force, ministerial decisions in those areas must demonstrate consideration of the national Plan, with progress reported under existing reporting duties.