MSPs Debate ‘Binge-Drink Culture’

The problems of cheap alcohol and Scotland’s binge-drinking culture are to be debated at Holyrood. The Scottish Executive has admitted that its first alcohol strategy, introduced five years ago, failed to change the culture.

Ministers’ new strategy will come under fire from the SNP, which wants stricter licensing laws to govern supermarket and off-licence alcohol sales. The Conservatives claim better policing of the existing laws is required.

The executive is hoping its next five-year plan will see more success in stamping out binge-drinking culture and the violence and ill-health it fuels. New licensing laws are due to come into effect next year. They will see action taken against shopkeepers who sell alcohol to under-18s and a 14-point partnership agreement with the drinks industry to stamp out irresponsible promotions.

Last month research from the Office for National Statistics said that men and women in Scotland were twice as likely to die an alcohol-related death as people in the UK as a whole.

Latest figures show that one in four men and one in 10 women are putting their health at risk through drinking