News
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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
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- Four years of MUP
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- 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
- Scottish Greens call for action on alcohol marketing
- SWA will appeal to UK Supreme Court
- SWA urged to respect minimum pricing decision
- Minimum pricing can be implemented in Scotland
- AFS welcomes revised alcohol consumption guidelines
- Emergency services face shocking levels of alcohol abuse
- Every child has the right to grow up safe from alcohol harm
- New toolkit to help children affected by family alcohol problems
- Alcohol campaigners unite to call for stronger protection from alcohol advertising to children
- No completely 'safe' level of drinking
- New alcohol guidelines published
- Minimum pricing - European court ruling
- Alcohol: a global concern
We need to make it easier for people to drink less
The latest alcohol sales data show that last year, 10.5 litres of pure alcohol were sold per adult in Scotland.
That’s a massive 1,050 units of alcohol each – equivalent to 105 bottles of wine, 40 bottles of vodka or 456 pints of beer.
Every week, we are buying enough alcohol for every person in Scotland to substantially exceed the weekly drinking guideline. Weekly sales are 20.2 units of alcohol per adult, whereas the Chief Medical Officers’ recommend not regularly drinking more than 14 units in a week. Fourteen units is around six pints of beer, a bottle and a half of wine, or half a bottle of spirits.
If we look at how much alcohol is sold per drinker, rather than per adult, then the figure increases from 10.5 to 12.5 litres of pure alcohol – equivalent to 48 bottles of vodka a year. More of us now describe ourselves as non-drinkers, but those of us who do drink are drinking more.
Alcohol sales in Scotland are 17% higher than in England and Wales and the vast majority of this difference is due to higher off-trade sales in Scotland. In particular, we buy far more spirits from shops, especially vodka. Whisky may be our national drink but it’s vodka that we are buying and drinking more of.
Find out more - Alcohol sales data
Unsurprisingly, our higher overall consumption means we also suffer more alcohol-related hospital admissions and deaths than the rest of the UK.
Pubs, clubs and restaurants only account for about a quarter of total alcohol sales. We now buy most of our alcohol from supermarkets and corner shops. Retailers – with scant regard for the health or social consequences – use alcohol as a loss leader to attract customers; stacking it high and selling it cheap. The importance of price in shaping our drinking habits cannot be underestimated and that’s why increasing the price of the cheapest, most damaging drinks through a 50p minimum unit price is so vital.
Of course, while alcohol sales paint a useful - and worrying - national picture, we know that there are big differences in how much we drink individually. At one end of the spectrum, around one in five Scots don’t drink at all, while at the other end, heavy drinkers attending NHS treatment services in Glasgow and Edinburgh were consuming an average of 185 units of alcohol per week.
But it’s worth highlighting that one in four of us are regularly exceeding the recommended guidelines of 14 units per week. That’s one million people in Scotland putting themselves at increased risk of breast, bowel and oral cancers, stroke, liver disease and mental health problems.
All drinking carries a degree of risk and that risk generally increases in line with how much we consume. Chief Medical Officers advise spreading drinking over three days or more during the week to minimise the risk of accidents and injuries associated with heavy drinking sessions, and increasing how many alcohol-free days you have each week is a good way to cut down.
Benefits of drinking less
There are lots of benefits to drinking less, and even small changes can make a big difference. Checking the strength of drinks is important as brands can vary dramatically, or try some of the low alcohol and alcohol-free options that are now available. Watch out for bigger measures poured at home because it’s all too easy to be far more generous than a standard pub measure.
The short term paybacks of cutting down include improved mood, better sleep, more energy and more time to make the most of evenings and weekends rather than suffering the fuzzy head and nausea of a hangover. There’s also our waistlines to think about. Alcohol is full of calories, with one large glass of wine containing up to 200 calories - the same as a sugar doughnut.
The reality is that far too many of us are drinking at levels that endanger our health. We can all take a look at our own drinking habits to see if we would benefit from cutting down. But we also need to think more broadly about whether our national approach to reducing alcohol consumption is sufficient to the task.
The Scottish Government is due to publish the next phase of its alcohol strategy shortly and we hope it will contain bold action to reduce the availability and marketing of alcohol. Alcohol is available anytime, anyplace, anywhere and we’re encouraged to drink in every social situation. We can’t expect people to drink less without making it easier for them to do so.
Alison Douglas, Chief Executive, Alcohol Focus Scotland