Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office, Edinburgh - Briefing Document Sixteen

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Parliamentary Officer:Rev Graham Blount
Phone:
0131 558 8137

Briefing Document No 16 - Page 1 of 5

Alcohol Misuse

On 7 December 2000, Malcolm Chisholm, (Deputy Minister for Health) and Iain Gray, (Deputy Minister for Justice) announced that by the end of 2001 the Executive will have created an Action Plan on Alcohol Misuse, in response to the problems that excessive drinking causes in Scotland. Alcohol misuse is a real problem with 33% of men and 15% of women exceeding the recommended weekly units of alcohol according to the Scottish Health Survey for 1998. Furthermore, most teenagers have begun to drink by the time they are fifteen years old. The costs in personal, social and economic terms are great; Malcolm Chisholm stated that there may be as many as three to four thousand alcohol-related deaths each year.

The two Deputy Ministers outlined the following two steps which will lead to the production of the Executive's Action Plan on Alcohol Misuse:

1. A six month consultation period that aims to seek the views of all interested parties on how best to tackle alcohol misuse.
2. A review of the current licensing laws which date back to 1976.

1. Consultation exercise

This "inclusive consultation process" has now begun, with a consultation paper and questions sent out to a wide range of interested parties. The purpose of the consultation is not only to receive responses to the questions, but also to find out:
(a) What is causing concern to organisations and individuals about drinking in Scotland
(b) Views on what needs to be done by all parties
(c) What organisations, sectors, and individuals can do as part of any agreed plans for action

To this end Ministers will be involved in a variety of discussion exercises and events during the consultation period. An interactive website has been set up at www.scotland.gov.uk/health/alcoholmisuse so that information and comments can be exchanged. The Executive "would like the process to be evolutionary, so would welcome early thoughts during the consultation on key issues". At the end of the six months all the responses to the consultation exercise will be analysed and will feed into the development of the Action Plan. The aim is to produce the plan by the end of 2001.

The consultation document also encourages networks to organise discussions on the issue and to let the Executive know about such discussions, as "Ministers in the Health and Justice Departments of the Executive would be interested to hear views directly and we hope there will be opportunities for this". Presumably, the Executive may send a representative to such discussions. The Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office will host such a discussion on 2 May at 2.30pm.

The plan for action, when completed is to be a "true partnership". Essentially this means that the plan will expect the alcohol trade, public bodies and the voluntary sector to take action.