Alcohol ads in spotlight
Fresh strategy to tackle alcohol harm.
Curbs on the marketing of alcoholic drinks to protect children are included in new plans to tackle alcohol harm.
The Scottish Government’s ‘Alcohol Framework 2018: Preventing Harm’, includes proposals to consult on alcohol marketing such as public spaces and online. Under the framework, the UK Government will be pressed to impose a 9 pm watershed for alcohol advertising on TV, and restrictions on advertising in cinemas are also proposed.
Alcohol producers will be urged to put health information on labels, and the current minimum unit price of 50 pence will be reviewed after 1 May 2020.
Alcohol misuse costs Scotland £3.6 billion each year – £900 for every adult – and on average, almost 700 Scots are hospitalised because of their drinking every week.
Speaking at the European Alcohol Policy Conference in Edinburgh, Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick said:
“Our new Alcohol Framework sets out our next steps on tackling alcohol-related harm. We need to keep challenging our relationship with alcohol to save lives. Behind each statistic is a person, a family, a community struggling with the impact of alcohol harms. These new measures build on the progress of our 2009 Framework which has made an impact by tackling higher-risk drinking, but we want to go further.
“Scotland’s action is bold and it is brave and, as demonstrated by our world-leading minimum unit pricing policy, we are leading the way in introducing innovative solutions to public health challenges.”
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