Plan to make booze retailers help pay cost of drink misuse

PUBS, clubs and off-licences could face an extra tax to pay for the consequences of alcohol misuse under a new strategy unveiled today.

The proposed "social responsibility fee" paid by drink retailers would be designed to reduce the cost to the taxpayer, currently estimated at £2.25 billion a year.

The level of the fee could be set by local authorities, who would also have responsibility for collecting it. The cash raised could help meet not just the costs of extra late-night policing, but also the increased burden on the health service from alcohol misuse and other costs stemming from drink-fuelled antisocial behaviour.

The idea was spelled out today in a consultation paper launched in Armadale by health secretary Nicola Sturgeon and justice secretary Kenny MacAskill.

Other proposals to combat the misuse of alcohol have also been confirmed. They include:

• Raising the minimum age for off-sales alcohol purchases to 21.

• Setting a minimum price for a unit of alcohol.

• Ending "three for the price of two" type promotions which encourage impulse buying.

• Introducing alcohol-only checkouts in large off-sales premises, so that alcohol is thought of as a special case and not "just another product".

The ministers also confirmed a record £85 million increase in alcohol prevention, treatment and support services, bringing total spend to £120m over the next three years.

They chose Armadale for today's launch because of the recent six-week pilot which banned under-21s from buying alcohol at off-licences. The experiment resulted in a big drop in calls about antisocial behaviour, youth drinking and vandalism.

Ms Sturgeon said it was time for action to defuse the health time-bomb alcohol misuse was storing up for the future.

She said: "We are not anti-alcohol, but we are concerned about alcohol misuse.

"People across all sections of society, of all ages, are drinking ever greater quantities of stronger alcoholic drinks.

"It should come as no surprise that alcohol-related health problems have risen hand-in-hand with this increased consumption.

"The cost of alcohol misuse to our health service, our justice services and our economy is enormous and growing. The cost to our families, our communities and our society is incalculable."

Mr McAskill added: "We can no longer sit back and let alcohol misuse continue to take its shocking toll on our criminal justice system, health service and economy.

"We know that two-thirds of murders are fuelled by drink and almost half of prisoners admitted to being drunk when they offended."

The consultation will run until September 9 ahead of the new Licensing Act coming into force on September 1 next year.

Shock tactic adverts aim to cut binge drinking
A SHOCKING series of anti-binge drinking adverts launched today by the UK Government shows young people deliberately injuring themselves and smearing vomit in their hair.

The £4 million Home Office campaign is designed to show the consequences of drinking too much, and asks: "You wouldn't start a night like this, so why end it that way?"

One ad – to be shown during youth programmes on national TV – depicts a young man getting ready for a night out who rips out his ear-ring, smashes a wardrobe door in his face, urinates on his shoes and pours a takeaway meal down his shirt.

Another shows an attractive young woman arranging vomit in her hair, smudging make-up down her face and ripping her clothes.

The TV ads will also be replicated in a series of shop window displays.

A MULTIBILLION-POUND PRICE TAG
• Alcohol misuse costs Scotland £2.25 billion per year – the equivalent of £500 per adult.

• Last year Scots bought drinks containing nearly 50 million litres of pure alcohol – enough for every man and woman to exceed the sensible drinking guidelines for men every week of the year.

• An estimated 65,000 children are living with a parent or carer who has an alcohol problem.

• Alcohol-related visits to Scottish hospitals have risen by almost 50 per cent over the last decade and alcohol-related death rates have more than doubled.

• Scotland has one of the fastest growing liver cirrhosis death rates in the world at a time when cirrhosis rates in most of western Europe are falling.