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Blog: New Strategy, New Parliament, New Hope

Carolyn Lochhead, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland analyses Scotland’s new Alcohol and Drug Strategic Plan 

It’s been a busy first few weeks in post as Alcohol Focus Scotland’s new CEO. Not only have we been attending party conferences and launching our manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections, my whirlwind start has also coincided with the Scottish Government publishing their  new Alcohol and Drugs Strategy for 2026 to 2035 – ‘Preventing harm, Promoting Recovery’. 

It includes some truly great stuff, including some of our key policy asks, many of which are supported by over 70 organisations across Scotland who have signed up to our campaign for urgent action. 

It’s worth reminding ourselves why this new strategy is so important. Alcohol deaths in Scotland remain near record highs, with over 50 people dying because of alcohol each week. One in five Scots are still drinking at levels potentially harmful to our health. Changes to drinking patterns during the pandemic have become established, exacerbating the situation.  

Additionally, Audit Scotland recently raised serious concerns that Scotland’s alcohol health emergency has not received the same levels of attention or investment as those aimed at tackling the drug deaths crisis. Alcohol Focus Scotland has been sounding that particular alarm for some time. 

Our recently published manifesto for the next Scottish elections ‘No More Half Measures: time to get serious about alcohol harm’ features six key policy asks, including: 

• Restrictions on alcohol marketing 

• Introducing mandatory health warning labels on alcohol products 

• Automatic uprating of the minimum unit price (MUP) 

• Reform of the licensing system 

• Expansion of early detection of liver disease 

• Greater investment in treatment and support funded by a levy on alcohol retailers 

So, we’re really pleased to see a commitment to ‘whole population, preventative action on alcohol harm, drawing on the WHO’s framework’ with promised action on price, marketing and availability of alcohol. 

We welcome a commitment to expanding early detection of liver disease, including increased use of non-invasive mobile liver scanning. 

It’s also great to see a commitment to a human rights-based approach, which includes empowering people with lived and living experience of alcohol harm. 

The commitment to a national needs assessment for alcohol treatment and care services is especially welcome, and something which AFS has been calling for over many years. The last needs assessment was conducted in 2014, and we cannot effectively design and resource services in the dark. 

A commitment to considering expansion of Alcohol Care Teams in acute hospitals is also very welcome, and another of the asks in our recent call for urgent action. 

Prevention 

However, while the sets out a broadly welcome direction of travel, the detail won’t be clear till we see the alcohol prevention plan in autumn.  

The Scottish Government’s 2018 Alcohol Framework set out a range of highly ambitious policies and commitments on preventing and reducing alcohol harm. Yet many of these remain little more than words on paper. 

Whilst the implementation and uprating of minimum unit pricing has been a major success, saving hundreds of lives and averting thousands of hospital admissions, action in other areas has largely stalled – with industry influence often a clear roadblock, most obviously in the case of the proposed introduction of alcohol marketing restrictions. 

The 2018 Framework was robust on conflicts of interest, rightly promising that business and industry would not be involved in health policy development, health messaging campaigns or health education. We’re disappointed to see an absence of similarly firm language in the new strategy and will remind the Scottish Government of their previously well-founded stance. 

Already we see attempts from some quarters in this election cycle to relitigate arguments around minimum unit pricing. 

It is high time that everyone joined in celebrating what is surely one of the most evaluated and successful policies implemented by the Scottish Parliament. Introducing automatic uprating in line with inflation would protect the effectiveness of the policy in the long term, saving hundreds more lives. The evidence on minimum unit pricing is crystal clear and it’s time to act. 

Investment and focus on alcohol harm 

Alcohol Focus Scotland had lobbied for a stand-alone alcohol strategy, so it will be for the government to demonstrate that a dual alcohol and drugs strategy can maintain the necessary focus on alcohol. 

In order to meet the goals of the new strategic plan, additional investment will be absolutely vital. 

Audit Scotland highlighted the significant gap in effort and funding in their recent report into alcohol and drug services, noting that while the National Mission on Drugs has provided a focus on drug-related harm, “there have been no equivalent developments specifically focusing on reducing alcohol harm.”  

The Auditor General himself stated: “The creation of the National Mission has in part been at the expense of focus on alcohol deaths and alcohol services.” 

Introducing a levy on off trade retailers based on the ‘polluter pays’ principal could provide some of this additional funding, rather than allowing retailers to pocket additional revenues from minimum unit pricing, which many understandably view as being unfair. 

New Parliament, new hope 

Whoever wins the election in May, a new Parliament and a new Government offers the opportunity for a fresh start.  

Scotland was, not so very long ago, a pioneer on the prevention and reduction of alcohol harm – the first country in the world to introduce minimum unit pricing, a real David versus Goliath victory in the face of massive industry opposition. 

Sadly, recent years have seen us overtaken by other countries – with the likes of the Republic of Ireland striding confidently ahead with restrictions on marketing and the introduction (albeit delayed by industry lobbying!) of health warning labels. 

The next Parliament offers the opportunity for a new government to make good on genuinely creating a healthier and happier Scotland by rediscovering our capacity to punch above our weight as a small nation and once again lead the way on tackling alcohol harm.