The Scottish budget ‘will miss the mark’ in tackling the country’s alcohol-related harms, says Alcohol Focus Scotland (AFS).
A ‘mix of funding cuts and missed opportunities amount to a disappointingly lacking budget’, says the charity, which has questioned the Scottish Government’s commitment to addressing the ‘alcohol harm emergency’. There were 1,277 alcohol-specific deaths registered in Scotland last year, the highest number for 15 years.
Scotland’s budget this week allocated £80.9m funding for alcohol and drugs, which at just £500,000 up on the previous year amounts to a ‘real terms cut’, says AFS. £60m will go to the country’s national mission on drug deaths, leaving £20.9m for treatment, prevention and ‘dealing with the consequences of problem alcohol and drug use’.
Health campaigners had urged the government to introduce a compulsory ‘public health supplement’ on drinks retailers in the budget, with the money used to fund preventative interventions. This was not included and the government had also failed to take on board Audit Scotland’s recommendations that an increase in funding to tackle alcohol harm was urgently needed, AFS states.
‘With a real terms cut to funding on alcohol prevention and treatment, and the failure to re-introduce the public health supplement on alcohol retailers, the budget in its current form is disappointingly lacking in the ambition and determination needed to tackle Scotland’s alcohol emergency,’ said AFS deputy CEO Laura Mahon. ‘Three years ago, the Scottish Government used their budget to declare alcohol a public health emergency, yet this year made no mention of a crisis that has only worsened during that time – with alcohol deaths hitting a 15 year high in 2023. The Scottish Government has repeatedly pointed to funding for the national mission as evidence that they are taking alcohol harm seriously. Yet Audit Scotland has now confirmed what Alcohol Focus Scotland has been saying for some time – that tacking alcohol onto the national mission for drugs is totally insufficient for the scale of the problem and has led to reduced focus on tackling alcohol harm.’
Meanwhile, the latest analysis from OHID shows that the rate of premature deaths from alcoholic liver disease in England was up by 3.6 per cent between 2022 and 2023, to 5,984. ‘The England rate of premature deaths from alcoholic liver disease between 2001 to 2023 has increased by almost 60 per cent,’ it adds. There were 8,274 alcohol-specific deaths in England overall last year, almost 5 per cent up on the previous year and 64 per cent up from 2006. The alcohol-specific death rate was highest in the North East, at more than 25 per 100,000 population, and lowest in the East of England, at 11.5 per 100,000.
‘It is absolutely tragic to see yet another increase in deaths from conditions wholly attributable to alcohol,’ said head of alcohol policy for Fresh and Balance, Sue Taylor – ‘with the worst rates here in the North East. Behind these statistics are families and communities, shattered by the impact that alcohol can have. This is particularly pertinent in the run up to Christmas, when we see a saturation of alcohol advertising, countless promotions in supermarkets and unavoidable pressures to drink – all of which we know can tip people suffering from alcohol addiction over the edge.’
Liver disease profile, December 2024 update available here
Alcohol profiles for England: short statistical commentary, December 2024 available here