News
- Survey shows post-pandemic increase in drinking for some
- Scottish Government commit to further plans to restrict alcohol marketing
- Challenge and Change: Rod Anderson
- Parliament must come together to renew and reinvigorate MUP
- A responsible drinking campaign that features cocktail recipes
- Unacceptable rise in alcohol-specific deaths
- Health experts share concerns about complaint made on MUP evaluation
- Decline in alcohol treatment in Scotland
- Challenge and Change: Lived Experience Voices on Alcohol Marketing
- Blog post for Alcohol Awareness Week 2023
- Final verdict on MUP
- Alcohol and diabetes
- Doctors say lack of response on alcohol deaths could spell disaster for Scotland
- MUP reduces deaths and hospital admissions
- Alcohol hospital admissions continue to be too high
- Lessons learned from countries with marketing restrictions
- What is the effect of alcohol marketing on people with or at risk of an alcohol problem?
- ONS figures show highest alcohol deaths on record
- MUP and alcohol sales
- Scottish Government launches alcohol marketing consultation
- MUP and alcohol products and prices
- Scottish Health Survey 2021
- New licensing policy review guide
- Slight increase in alcohol-specific deaths
- Health campaigners call on Scottish Government to regulate alcohol packaging
- Scottish charity calls for ban on all alcohol promotion
- New NCD Prevention Report - Mapping Future Harm
- Online Alcohol Sales & Deliveries: A survey of young people in Scotland
- Four years of MUP
- Prominent health warnings make drinking “unappealing”
- Insights from People in Recovery
- Meet our Engagement Team Marc
- Meet our Engagement Team Megan
- Report on alcohol sales and harm in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Sugar content in wine revealed
- Alcohol hospital admissions lower during pandemic
- Study reveals those already at risk from heavy drinking bought more alcohol during lockdowns
- Alcohol policy measures could reduce ambulance callouts
- 18.6% increase in deaths from alcohol in 2020
- Widespread support for calls to increase minimum unit price for alcohol to 65p
- Students as Change Agents
- Health charities call for action to save lives from Scotlands biggest killers
- Three quarters of Scots back new controls to help protect children from alcohol advertising
- Alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland increase
- More accurate estimates for the burden of Alcohol on the Ambulance Service: around 1 in 6 callouts in Scotland are alcohol related
- How can alcohol labels be improved to help people make informed consumption choices
- Health experts call for better alcohol labelling
- Young people and their views on alcohol marketing
- Lowest alcohol sales in Scotland for 26 years
- Minimum unit pricing has lasting impact study shows
- Euros renews call for action to protect children from alcohol sports sponsorship
- Current alcohol labelling of little relevance to young adult drinkers
- Governments should step up efforts to tackle harmful alcohol consumption
- Scottish public and leading health experts back changes to alcohol labelling
- AFS calls for 65p minimum unit price for alcohol
- How will the main parties prevent harm from alcohol?
- Alcohol labelling reform is way past its sell by date
- Alcohol policy priorities for the next parliament
- Young drinkers believe prominent health warnings on alcohol could boost risk awareness
- Alcohol and the Workplace Effective Interventions
- Alcohol sales and consumption in Scotland during the pandemic
- How can we prevent alcohol deaths?
- Alcohol Deaths and Minimum Unit Pricing
- YoungScot Health Panel report on alcohol marketing and harm
- Young Scots show support for restrictions on alcohol marketing
- New release of alcohol related hospital admissions
- Better alcohol labelling – A way to boost awareness of the risk between alcohol and cancer?
- NICE Guidelines on FASD Surveillance or Support?
- Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support
- Almost half of Scots in favour of minimum unit pricing
- Leading health charities call for action in Scotland
- Health experts campaign for better understanding of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
- Health experts call for alcohol labelling overhaul
- Australian ministers agree to visible pregnancy warning
- Alcohol Focus Scotland welcomes new WHO report on alcohol pricing
- Survey shows Scots lockdown drinking rise caused by stress
- Statistical analysis of off-trade alcohol sales in the year following MUP
- Alcohol Focus Scotland Review of statements of licensing policy 2018 to 2023
- We need to continue long-term focus on alcohol
- Scots report changing drinking patterns during coronavirus lockdown
- Time to Blow the Whistle on Alcohol Sport Sponsorship
- New evidence demonstrates that alcohol ads lead to youth drinking
- Alcohol sales fall in first year of MUP
- First study published into under 18 drinkers post MUP
- Commission on Alcohol Harm calls for evidence
- Two years on Are annual functions reports reaching their potential?
- We need to do more to protect our children and young people
- New Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support Now Available from AFS
- Scottish primary children call for action on alcohol
- Its time to tell us whats in our drinks
- A home for Rory
- Making a bad impression - blog post
- Alcohol marketing and children debate in the Scottish Parliament
- Alcohol sales and MUP
- Lowest alcohol sales in 25 years
- Research into fall in violence
- The Children's Parliament investigates an alcohol-free childhood
- Minimum unit pricing one year on
- More about sales data
- A family of resources it is all about prevention, education and resilience
- AFS publish Review of Licensing Board Annual Functions Reports 2017-2018
- Marketing unmasked dispelling the myths and taking a stand
- No place for alcohol marketing in sport
- Scotland publishes first UK guidelines for diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
- The Alcohol Framework 2018 Preventing Harm
- Scotlands new drug and alcohol strategy launched
- AFS welcome new alcohol strategy
- Recent reporting on alcohol sales data
- Diageo is failing to provide latest guidelines on their products
- Drinks companies keeping consumers in dark about risky drinking
- Reducing alcohol consumption can address health inequalities
- Global first alcohol policy set to save hundreds of Scots' lives
- AFS welcomes minimum unit pricing for alcohol
- Truer picture of alcohol harm revealed
- Alcohol causes 3,700 deaths in Scotland every year
- Scotland's licensing system needs clearer direction
- Minimum pricing blog
- Minimum pricing gets green light
- Alcohol brands and young people
- Time for honest conversations about alcohol
- Q&A on alcohol marketing
- UK children anxious about parents' drinking
- Alcohol producers failing to inform public
- Concern over alcohol-related deaths
- We need to make it easier for people to drink less
- Worrying rise in alcohol-related deaths
- Minimum pricing will save lives
- Pocket money prices for alcohol continue
- Scotland's alcohol problem laid bare
- Cheap alcohol is costing Scotland dear
- One drink a day can increase breast cancer risk
- Poverty linked to increased harm from alcohol
- What next for reducing alcohol harm in Scotland?
- Scotland must do more to turn tide of alcohol harm
- Concern as funding for alcohol services cut
- Scottish Government urged to curb alcohol marketing
- Consumers have the right to know health risks
- Alcohol-free childhood is healthiest option
- SWA granted leave to appeal minimum pricing
- SWA will appeal to UK Supreme Court
- SWA urged to respect minimum pricing decision
- Minimum pricing can be implemented in Scotland
- Emergency services face shocking levels of alcohol abuse
- Every child has the right to grow up safe from alcohol harm
- Minimum pricing - European court ruling
New NCD Prevention Coalition Report - Mapping Future Harm
New poll shows support for increased regulations to tackle health issues around tobacco, alcohol and obesity
Two out of three people (67%) in Scotland think the Scottish Government should be doing more to improve public health, according to an exclusive new poll[i] commissioned by a coalition of leading charities.
The survey also reveals wide-ranging public support for the introduction of initiatives to tackle the availability, marketing and price and promotion of health harming products such as tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food and drink.
Among the key findings:
- Almost eight out of ten Scots (78%) polled were in favour of banning advertising of all tobacco and nicotine products
- Three in five (62%) would welcome restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotions online, in public spaces and at sport and cultural events
- More than three quarters (81%) were in favour of introducing policies which ensure fruit and vegetables are cheaper to buy than unhealthy foods
The findings have been released by nine health charities, as part of their ongoing campaign for action to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Scotland. NCDs – which include heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lung disease and diabetes - are a major cause of ill health, responsible for more than 40,000 deaths each year in Scotland but the coalition suggests as many as 8,000 – or one in five – could be prevented through public health initiatives.
The poll of 1,000 adults in Scotland conducted by YouGov in March this year, also revealed two out of three (67%) were in favour of setting a minimum and maximum price for tobacco, while almost seven in ten (68%) supported health warning labels on alcohol products.
The survey comes as analysis by one of the coalition partners – BHF Scotland – reveals that before the end of this parliamentary term in 2026, the number of obesity-related NCD deaths in Scotland could increase by as much as 10%, with recent trends also suggesting progress made in reducing alcohol-related deaths and alcohol-related hospital admissions is stalling.
The group has also expressed concerns over growing health inequalities, claiming the burden of obesity, tobacco-use and alcohol consumption is higher in the most deprived areas, contributing to a 24-year gap in healthy life expectancy between Scotland’s most and least deprived communities.
David McColgan, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager, BHF Scotland, said: “For years, the Scottish Government has prided itself as being a world leader in public health, but the sad reality is we are being overtaken by other countries. Commitments to introduce new measures to improve public health have been repeatedly delayed and all the while the burden of disease is being felt by the most vulnerable in our communities.
“NCDs cause well over two thirds of all deaths in Scotland but we know thousands of these could be prevented. It is evident that the public believes the Scottish Government should be doing more and supports increased measures to tackle these issues. We have already waited too long and the Scottish Government must now sit up and listen and deliver a comprehensive public health bill urgently.”
Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive, ASH Scotland, said: “The public in Scotland clearly recognise the major threats health harming products pose to the quality and length of people’s lives, especially for those who develop a non-communicable disease, and the need for government to take strong measures such as banning the advertising of all tobacco, nicotine and related products.
“With health inequalities continuing to thrive in our most disadvantaged communities and contributing to Scotland’s poorest people dying early, the Scottish Government needs to be bolder and take more determined, targeted and measured action to challenge the normalisation of smoking, and reduce the consumption of health harming products that persists in our society.
“It is also vital that investment is made to expand the availability of person-centred community-based services to meet the need for smoking cessation, alcohol treatment and weight management support in communities facing multiple deprivation and the greatest challenges to enjoying a full, healthy life.”
Lorraine Tulloch, Programme Lead, Obesity Action Scotland, said: “We all should have the chance to lead a healthy life, free of preventable disease. This requires us to have access to an affordable healthy diet. Unfortunately, at the moment we are seeing worrying trends in the weight of the population of Scotland as a result of our poor diet.
“The Public Health Bill must create the shift in our diets that is urgently required. We need bold action to tackle the constant advertising and promotion of foods high in fat, sugar and salt and to improve the out of home sector.”
Laura Mahon, Deputy Chief Executive, Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government has made welcome commitments to tackle the high levels of ill-health caused by alcohol and other health-harming products, but these promises must now be turned into action. The public want to see change, and the devastating rise in deaths from alcohol in 2020 shows we cannot afford to wait.
“To make a concrete difference to people’s health we need evidence-based solutions. Introducing restrictions on how and where alcohol can be marketed, alongside increasing the minimum unit price to at least 65p would save and improve lives, particularly for those living in our poorest communities who feel the negative effects most.”
Non-Communicable Disease Prevention: Mapping Future Harm
Non-Communicable Disease Prevention: Mapping Future Harm Briefing
[i] References
All survey figures are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,002 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 10th - 14th March 2022. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all Scottish adults (aged 18+).