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 5 of 5

Alcohol Misuse - Continued

Consultation Questions

1: How should we define alcohol misuse? (You might like to think about both consumption and the consequences of alcohol misuse)

2: What concerns you most about current patterns and trends in drinking in Scotland?

3: Are there priority groups or individuals whose drinking we should try to influence in the Plan for Action?

4 : What specific objectives, and activities designed to achieve these, would you like to see in the national Plan for Action? For example:
(i) To change the ways individuals or groups within the population, including children and young people, perceive the use and misuse of alcohol?
(ii) To affect patterns of alcohol consumption by individuals or groups.
(iii) To affect overall levels of consumption?
(iv) To reduce misuse of alcohol by people of all ages and to promote sensible drinking?
(v) To make sure that existing law relevant to alcohol is enforced properly and consistently?
(vi) To improve services that help people deal with their own misuse of alcohol?
(vii) To improve access to such services?
(viii) To improve services to those affected by other people's alcohol misuse eg relatives and carers, victims of crime?
(ix) To improve relevant information available to the general public, service users and service providers?

5: Would you like to see changes in aspects of the law relevant to misuse of alcohol? In particular, how would you like to see the law on liquor licensing change to produce a system of licensing that reflects the modern view of the place of alcohol in Scotland?

6: Of the objectives you suggest at Question 4, which require action (either singly or jointly) by government, statutory bodies, industry, employers, communities, individuals or others? If several bodies are involved, which has or have the key responsibility?

7: What gaps do you identify in action that is currently being taken? For example:
(i) To influence, educate or inform individuals and specific groups?
(ii) To affect patterns of drinking?
(iii) To enforce the law?
(iv) To improve services?

8: What can your organisation or sector do to address the gaps?

9: What support structures will be needed to deliver the national Plan for Action? For example, should local co-ordinating arrangements through Alcohol Misuse Co-ordinating Committees be strengthened and, if so, how?

10: What measures should be taken to ensure that the general public and specific groups get information about the national Plan for Action when it is ready, from your own organisation or from others?

11: How should all concerned be held accountable for what they do under the Plan for Action?