The Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023: Fairer Scotland duty assessment summary
Assesses the impact of changes to Best Start Foods on socio-economic inequality. This duty came into force in Scotland in 2018 and is set out in Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010. It considers issues such as low income, low wealth and area deprivation.
Introduction
The primary purpose of these regulations is to meet the Ministerial commitment to remove income thresholds for all qualifying benefits for Best Start Foods (BSF) in 2023-24. They will also align eligibility criteria and processes more closely with Best Start Grant (BSG) and Scottish Child Payment (SCP), and make some changes to the rules around payments.
This Fairer Scotland Duty (FSD) assessment has been developed to accompany the Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023. As such, the focus of this FSD assessment is the changes that these regulations will make to BSF. This assessment builds on the FSD assessment that was produced prior the introduction of The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendment and Transitional Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2022[1] that made changes to BSF following the introduction of BSF in 2019.
A corresponding Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment, an Islands Communities Impact Screening, and a Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment have also been produced.
Contact
Email: ben.sutcliffe@gov.scot
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