ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines post-devolution approaches to improving population health and health inequalities, before drawing on data from a larger research project to explore food policy in more depth. It discusses that despite the ideational divergences, political traditions have tended to reproduce specific policy practices. Health policy was initially one of the most significant policy areas to be devolved in the UK. Despite the high-level policy commitments, several nations struggled to achieve measurable reductions in health inequalities. The formal introduction of a voluntary framework with the food industry can be traced to a joint government group, tasked with taking forward recommendations of the Route Map. It seems logical that the Scottish Government would seek to translate the ethos of partnership working from its overarching economic strategy to the specific policy areas of food and obesity, particularly given contractions in public expenditure and concomitant reductions in civil service staffing.
