Drug and alcohol services in Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many operating alcohol-serving establishments were registered in Scotland on 31 December each year?

2. The number of drug services, alcohol services, and/or integrated alcohol and drug services in Scotland. Please specify the number of each kind of service.

3. A breakdown of the Scottish Government’s £99.1 million investment in the Alcohol and Drugs Policy as stated in the 24-25 Scottish Budget.

4. Any estimates known to the Scottish Government regarding how much alcohol harm has cost the Scottish economy in terms of lost productivity, specifically due to mental health.

5. How much alcohol harm has cost the health services in Scotland.

6. The number of people using alcohol services in Scotland.

7. The gender breakdown of people using alcohol services in Scotland.

Response

I have broken down the responses to each part of your request. For parts 4,5 and 6,7 a joint response has been provided.

1. How many operating alcohol-serving establishments were registered in Scotland on 31 December each year?

The information requested is included in the Scottish Liquor Licensing Statistics published annually by the Scottish Government. Information for 2019 - 2022 can be found on the site Scottish Liquor Licensing Statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) on the Scottish Government website. The latest available statistics cover the period 2021-2022. Further statistical information has been requested from Licensing Boards for 2022-2023, and will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

2. The number of drug services, alcohol services, and/or integrated alcohol and drug services in Scotland. Please specify the number of each kind of service.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of drug services, alcohol services, and/or integrated alcohol and drug services in Scotland. Information on available services should be available from national directories or through the websites of the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCP) and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP) who commission the services in each local authority areas.

• More information on ADPs is available at Partnership working - Alcohol and drugs - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).
• The list of HSCPs is also available at HSCPs | HSCScotland. 

Strategic plans from HSCPs are available from this website, however where these are not functioning additional links have been provided below: 

• Fife HSCP – fife-strategic-plan-2023-to-2026.pdf (fifehealthandsocialcare.org)
• Highland lists Argyll and Bute for the strategic link. Highland HSCP publications | NHS Highland (scot.nhs.uk)
• North Ayrshire - NAHSCP Strategic Commissioning Plan
• North Lanarkshire Link to latest draft commission - Strategic Commissioning Plan | North Lanarkshire Council
• Western Isles strategic framework - Item-8.1.1-Appendix-1-HSC-Strategic-Framework-2023-26-IJB-29.06.23.pdf (scot.nhs.uk)

Directories also listing available services include:

• Know the Score - Drug Support Services Directory - Know the Score
• NHS Inform - Scotland's Service Directory | NHS inform

Including Scottish Government funded:

• WithYou - Our services - withYOU
• Scottish Families affected by Alcohol and Drugs (SFAD) - Service Directory - Access Local Support for Drug and Alcohol Issues (sfad.org.uk)

3. A breakdown of the Scottish Government’s £99.1 million investment in the Alcohol and Drugs Policy as stated in the 24-25 Scottish Budget.

• The Scottish Government has published its scottish-budget-2024-25.pdf (www.gov.scot).
• The Scottish Budget 2024-25 - Level 4 Tables provides a further breakdown of the total published budget, shown on lines 86 and 87 of the NHSR, H & SC tab.

4. Any estimates known to the Scottish Government regarding how much alcohol harm has cost the Scottish economy in terms of lost productivity, specifically due to mental health.

And

5. How much alcohol harm has cost the health services in Scotland.

• The Scottish Government has previously referred to figures published by the Social Market Foundation (2023), based on research carried out by the York Health Economics Consortium (2010) and the University of Aberdeen (2012), which estimated that alcohol-related societal and economic costs in Scotland in 2021-22, could amount to between approximately £5-10 billion annually.
• That research also estimated that the health and social care related societal costs arising from alcohol in Scotland could be between £500m and £700m annually.
• Similar estimates were referenced in the analysis of responses to the public consultation on whether Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) should be continued as part of the range of policy measures to address alcohol harm and the level MUP should be set at, and in an oral Parliamentary Question (S6O-03499) answered by Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy Christina McKelvie MSP on 29 May 2024.

6. The number of people using alcohol services in Scotland.

AND

7. The gender breakdown of people using alcohol services in Scotland.

• The Scottish Government does not hold information either on the number of people using alcohol services in Scotland or the gender breakdown of people using alcohol services in Scotland.
• Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes information from the Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) which records referrals to, and treatments provided by, specialist drug and alcohol services. DAISy was introduced in 2021.
• The quarterly National Drug and Alcohol Waiting Times report provides information on referrals and waiting times for drug and alcohol referrals to measure compliance with the Waiting Time Standard. The publication for 1 January 2024 – 31 March 2024 is available at the following link: National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times - 1 January 2024 to 31 March 2024. Please note these are numbers of referrals rather than the count of people accessing services as the same person can have more than one referral.
• The DAISy treatment report provides information on people undertaking initial assessment for specialist drug and alcohol treatment. The latest publication on initial assessments from 2021/22 and 2022/23 is available at the following link: (DAISy) overview of initial assessments for specialist drug and alcohol treatment 2021/22 and 2022/23. While this publication provides information on people attending specialist alcohol services at patient level, it cannot be considered to provide an accurate count of individuals receiving specialist care for their alcohol use as it does not capture data for all service providers (for example, primary care and hospital-based services).
• Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes data on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation approved placements for alcohol and co-dependency. However, as people may be approved more than once, and some may not continue on with the placement following the approval, this cannot be taken as an accurate reflection of people in treatment. Interim monitoring report on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements - Publications - Public Health Scotland – this covers the period between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2024. This report gives a sex breakdown for all placements and provides a breakdown of placements for alcohol and codependency for most recent data. Previous reports are available published on PHS pages which give these break downs for other time frames but as noted these cannot be taken as an accurate reflection of the number of people in treatment using alcohol services.
• In 2021 the Scottish Government published a mapping report on residential rehab Pathways into, through and out of Residential Rehabilitation in Scotland: Results from the Residential Rehabilitation Providers Survey (www.gov.scot) – this report provides estimates of numbers of people in rehab at the time of survey and gives sex and substance type breakdowns. This captures years 2019/20 and 2020/21 only. Not all residential rehabs were captured in this data and so this may not capture the totality of individuals. This is a count of people but only a subset of treatment.

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