Section 8: Review and revision of plan
21.The Scottish Ministers must review the national good food nation plan every 5 years, beginning on the date the first plan is published and laid before the Scottish Parliament.
22.Subsection (2) requires the Scottish Ministers, in reviewing the plan, to have regard to any recommendation made by the Scottish Food Commission (established by section 19 of the Act) by virtue of section 20(3)(a) of the Act.
23.The plan may be revised following a review (but does not have to be).
24.The provisions of section 1 on the content of the plan, section 2 on the principles to which regard must be had in the preparation of the plan, section 4 on consultation and section 5 on the regard to be given to international instruments when preparing the plans apply to the revision of the plan in the same way as they do to preparation of the initial plan.
25.The timing of the review requirement runs independently from the timing of the requirement to report on progress provided for in section 7.
26.For example, the Scottish Ministers must review the plan before the end of year 5. The Scottish Ministers will have to report on progress against the indicators set out in the plan (as revised following that review) as soon as practicable after the end of year 6, and again as soon as practicable after the end of year 8. A further review of the plan must be undertaken before the end of year 10 with the report on progress on that plan (as revised) due as soon as practicable after the end of year 10.
27.Subsection (6) provides that in preparing a revised national good food nation plan, the requirements in section 3(1) and (3) to (5) to lay (a) the proposed plan before the Parliament for a consideration period of 60 days and (b) a statement setting out details of any representations, resolutions or reports of the kind mentioned in paragraph 9 above and the changes, if any, which they have made to the plan in response to those representations, resolutions or reports together with the reasons for those changes apply in the same way as they do to preparation of the initial plan.
