Under-age Drinking
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S1M-3612, in the name of Trish Godman, on tackling under-age drinking. I ask members who are leaving the chamber to do so quickly, quietly and efficiently.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament commends the members of the Renfrewshire Council on Alcohol for their innovative and widely welcomed Young Persons Advisory Project which seeks to guide and educate young people and school children on the growing social, personal and health problems associated with underage drinking; notes that many of the youngsters that have attended the project's counselling programmes have benefited from their participation; further notes that they and their parents now have a greater awareness and a more sensible view of alcohol and its dangers; is pleased to see that there is growing interest in the project's work from as far away as the New Zealand Police, and believes that such initiatives dealing with alcohol and substance misuse amongst children and young people should receive appropriate support from the Scottish Executive.
I promise not to make an overlong speech, to allow other members to contribute on an issue that causes widespread concern and, in some cases, inflicts serious health problems on young people and brings misery to their families. Some would say that under-age drinking has always been with us and that young people will, by their very nature, experiment with smoking, drug misuse and alcohol. However, we have to tackle the problem of under-age drinking head on.
Sometimes young people drink themselves into oblivion, with disastrous consequences. No community is immune from the problem. Last week, for example, concerned voices were raised in Dublin over the number of young girls who were going into health clinics admitting that they had been so drunk the night before that they did not know whether they had been date raped or even whether they had had sexual intercourse. None of us wants to hear of that happening among our young constituents. The Dublin clinics' experience shows us just how dangerous heavy drinking can be.
The message has to be, "Do not indulge." However, the question is how we can get youngsters to accept that blunt advice. The task is formidable. The Scottish Executive's consultation with youngsters on the issue, which was carried out by Save the Children, revealed that many children with an average age of 14 related alcohol to having a good time, which acted as a powerful incentive for them to drink. The youngsters who were interviewed saw drinking alcohol as an active, pleasant and informed choice of behaviour. Of the young people whose average age was 17, 65 per cent said that they drank alcohol.
As that consultation and other research suggest, the reasons why young people drink are many. For example, they say: "It is the influence of the group that I hang around with." They say: "It is my older brother," or, "It is my older sister." They also say that drinking is cool, that it makes them feel good, that they are just experimenting or that it helps them to solve problems.
What about parents? I ran one of the first groups for the families of drug addicts in the east end of Glasgow. I assure members that I sat through many harrowing hours, hearing tales of youngsters misusing drugs and of the effect that that had on their families. But what happened at the end of those meetings? Some parents went off to the pub because, they said, they were under stress and drinking helped. That happened even though some of the discussion in the group had been about the fact that alcohol is a killer when misused. The parents were also aware that the World Health Organisation said, in 1987, that if alcohol were introduced to this country today, it would be a prescribed drug.
What about the media's obsession with reporting on footballers and pop stars who get drunk? For some reporters, it is a case of saying, "Lads will be lads." There is no consideration of the effect that their articles will have on impressionable youngsters.
My motion commends the fine work of the Renfrew Council on Alcohol. Members of that council have, all along, sought the active involvement of youngsters in tackling the problems of under-age drinking. Numerous youngsters who drank heavily have benefited from attending the council's counselling programmes. Their parents have also welcomed that approach to their children's problem drinking. That is important. Local police and other professionals are supportive and play an active part in the council's programmes.
However, much more needs to be done. Youngsters believe that we need better health programmes in schools—that is what they tell us when we ask them—and that they should be actively involved in the design and implementation of those programmes. We also need to provide youngsters with a much wider range of alternatives to drinking—for example, community activities, drop-in centres and youth cafes—all of which should be designed in consultation with young people. It is essential that we intervene at an early age because, for some adolescents who are developing into early adulthood, drinking has already become part of their daily activities.
That is why schools have an important part to play. Once drinking becomes ingrained, it is much more difficult to tackle effectively. We all have a role to play: we, in the Parliament, who must support financially—and in other ways—initiatives such as the Renfrew Council on Alcohol; people who work in the media; local authorities; teachers; community workers; people in the public eye whom youngsters look up to; parents; and the young people themselves. It is essential that young people and their parents can seek positive help quickly. That help must not be of the pursed-lip variety, which is not what our youngsters need. I shall listen closely to what the minister has to say.
I thank Trish Godman for lodging the motion, which tackles an important issue. It has been said on a number of occasions that the Parliament has not given the issue of alcohol the attention that it should have. The minister will correct me if I am wrong, but I think that we are still waiting for an Executive debate on the subject. My colleague Keith Raffan mentioned that today and it struck a chord with me, because, if the Executive led a debate on the subject, that would show that we take the issue seriously and want to tackle it.
As Trish Godman said, under-age drinking could be seen as a rite of passage. I know that we all did it—well, I certainly did—so it could be seen as part of growing up. However, I believe that under-age drinking is now out of hand. The type of drinking and what it leads to is different from what used to happen. Trish Godman outlined some of the dreadful effects of heavy drinking in teenage years, which can have lifelong consequences.
We all have examples to give. We have all received complaints from constituents about gangs of young people hanging about and drinking in play parks, smashing bottles and causing a disturbance.
To deal with the problem, we have to examine some of our attitudes to alcohol. Scotland has a culture of drinking, which is not the same as that on the continent. Europeans enjoy drinking, but they have a different way of drinking—they drink more often with a meal and unusually to excess. The Scottish drinking culture is one of getting drunk—that is the purpose of alcohol in the minds of many. The culture of binge drinking is at the root of the problem. Unless we address our behaviour as adults, young people will not take us seriously when we address their drinking. We have to set a clear example.
I will focus the rest of my remarks on those who sell alcohol to under-age children. An answer to a parliamentary question that Roseanna Cunningham lodged showed the extent of prosecutions in Scotland of those who had been found selling drink to under-age children. I accept—and I was approached about this—that it is sometimes difficult to spot whether someone is 16, because they might look older. If people sell under-age children alcohol inadvertently, of course there is a defence. However, some people consistently sell alcohol to under-age drinkers and are well known for doing so.
Across Scotland, there is huge variation in the numbers of people who are prosecuted. I do not think that that is just because some areas are worse than others—the issue relates to the prosecution service. I know that that is not the minister's responsibility, but I would appreciate it if she would take on board the need for an investigation into why some procurators fiscal are prosecuting and others are not. The selling of alcohol to under-age drinkers should be taken seriously and the full force of the law should be used against those who consistently break it.
I congratulate Trish Godman on securing this debate on a very important issue. I acknowledge the work of Renfrew Council on Alcohol and I hope that the lessons of its work are being disseminated throughout groups and organisations far beyond its area. I am aware that important work is being taken up by groups in my constituency and I note the important work that Glasgow City Council has done on the issue.
The starting point for me is that we know that young people might experiment with drink, but we also know that a lot of young people are damaged by adults' drinking in their homes. They are not strangers to drink, regardless of whether they drink, and there is a broader issue of how we address the problems.
I will focus my comments on two areas and flag up to the minister, and to the Executive more broadly, the importance of giving further consideration to those issues. It is important that there is serious, joined-up thinking, of which the previous speaker gave us an example. The impact of under-age drinking on the safety of our communities is an important issue in my constituency and, I am sure, elsewhere. The police tell me that it is difficult to manage under-age drinking, never mind eradicate it. Gatherings of young people drinking cause disorder and create fear for many people in our communities.
My constituents often highlight problems to me in relation to off-licences that become a magnet for young people. There is a problem with people who, knowingly or unknowingly, sell alcohol to under-age teenagers, but a more difficult problem, for which I do not have a solution, is adults who buy alcohol on behalf of young people. Our communities know the off-licences that are involved in such practices and are often in despair at the regularity with which those practices happen. We need to have an education campaign among adults to challenge the off-licences that act in that way. Some off-licences have developed codes of conduct, but more work must be done in conjunction with the police and the licensing authorities to tackle the matter.
Being involved in such a culture can have a terrible impact on young people; young girls are particularly vulnerable. Parents have to be aware of what is involved. We know the connection between chaotic drug abuse and drink abuse and the impact that that abuse can have on the community, in terms both of young children seeing older people acting in that way and of the health and well-being of the under-age drinkers.
Schools and people who work with young people must keep in mind the fact that, sometimes, poor attendance, lack of attention and bad behaviour might be connected to a young person's drinking habits. Once, I was trying to get a young person to attend school, but he kept saying that he did not like French. Finally, his mother came to a meeting and told us that he was a lot better since he had got off the drink. His problem was that he was an alcoholic, but, because he was 14 years old, we had been treating him as if he had a simple problem with attendance. I tell that story to emphasise that, even when offending behaviour is not evident, the pupil's problem might be related to alcohol. People who work with young people should be aware of that fact.
I wish the Executive, the police and local authorities the very best in the important work that they must do to address the broader consequences of under-age drinking.
I congratulate Trish Godman on obtaining the debate and I am glad that she highlighted the effectiveness of the young persons advisory project, which is run by the Renfrew Council on Alcohol. The strengths of that project lie in its fast-track, multi-agency, teamwork approach. That ghastly jargon simply means that everybody—social services, the police, the Renfrew Council on Alcohol and the office of the reporter to the Paisley children's panel—gets together.
The project is flexible in terms of educational and counselling options. It involves parents and consults young people. Perhaps most important of all, it has street credibility. Within two or three weeks, young people are into the programme. Those who have completed the programme—which is everyone who has started it—are far less likely to reoffend than those who have not been involved with the project. That is an example of the kind of practice that we need if we are to tackle this problem.
The problem is immense. There is a huge human cost and it loses our country £1 billion a year. There is a growing problem among younger people. In 1999-2000, there were 486 alcohol-related hospital admissions for under-16-year-olds. Binge drinking is on the increase. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report shows that, among 15 and 16-year-olds, 27 per cent report three or more binges in the previous month and that 16 to 24-year-olds are the most likely age group to exceed recommended weekly limits. Further, as has been said, there is a connection between drinking and drug taking. Thirty-nine per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds who drink once a week will have taken drugs in the past month, compared with 1 per cent of those who have never had a drink.
The "Plan for Action on alcohol problems" was published a year ago, but we are yet to have a full debate. A lot of concern has been expressed, not least by Alcohol Focus Scotland, but the Scottish Executive has yet to commit a substantial increase in funding.
Government income from alcohol is huge—the figure for 1999-2000 was £11.5 billion. Drinks companies spend millions on advertising their product. We need to look at what New Zealand has done. The Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand receives millions of New Zealand dollars of funding from a levy on all alcohol produced in the country and imported into it, and was given 3 million New Zealand dollars-worth of free air time to counterbalance alcohol advertising.
Despite the Scottish training on drugs and alcohol initiative, there is still a shortage of alcohol counsellors. There are still problems with waiting lists. Alcohol Focus Scotland spends £250,000 a year on training, but the Scottish Executive gives it only £25,000. The "Plan for Action on alcohol problems" called for the education of young people, but we have yet to set appropriate standards and guidelines. In Alcohol Focus Scotland's view, there has been little progress in the communication strategy since it was launched in April last year.
Those are some of the issues that I hope the minister will address in her response to the debate. If we are to make progress in tackling under-age drinking, we will need more financial resources.
I support the motion in Trish Godman's name on under-age drinking and congratulate her on securing the debate.
When David McLetchie asked me whether I would handle the Conservative contribution to the debate, I had to question why he thought me most suited to the role. What had he heard about my drinking activities? I was reassured when he advised me that I was best placed to speak because of my comparative youth.
It is said that confession is good for the soul. With that in mind, I confess not only that a varied assortment of spirits and, in my younger days, beers has passed my lips, but that some of it was before I reached the age of 18. I hasten to add that I was not moved to challenge the drinking laws every night. The vast majority of my under-age drinking was done in my parents' home and invariably under their supervision. I will return to that point in a moment.
I think back to occasions such as new years, when my family would travel to see my grandmother after the bells, the justification always being that it would be her last new year and we had to go.
That is the best excuse that I have heard.
Johann Lamont must have been through the same experience.
Until I was about 15, the drink that was regularly proffered was Harvey's Bristol cream. My grandmother had no concept of Coca-Cola, and I always associate Harvey's Bristol cream with the festive season. I also think of holidays abroad and changes of water. A mild shandy was always thought of as being a thirst quencher.
I could bore members rigid with stories of innocent imbibing—[Members: "No."] Members should hear about the Pimm's. However, that would be to detract from the point of the debate. The point for me is that my under-age drinking and indulgence happened under supervision. Consequently, that taught me to respect the power of alcohol and to adopt a sensible attitude to it. If only all my contemporaries had taken the same view.
Through our committee or constituency work, we are all aware of the profound effects that alcohol has on our society. Our social, health and police services all cope with the downside. The malign effect of alcohol takes up huge resources that could be directed elsewhere, and I am sure that others will comment on that. However, I pay tribute to the members of the Renfrew Council on Alcohol for their work on guiding and educating young people and children about the problems of under-age drinking.
In my younger days, the chances of seeing young people under the influence and very much the worse for wear were rare indeed, whereas now it is almost a daily occurrence. It would be easy to blame the retailers and say that they are eager to sell products and make a profit. It would be easy to blame the alcopop manufacturers and castigate them for identifying a market for their wares. However, alcohol is identified with many of the milestones in our lives. We wet a baby's head at a christening. We toast a happy couple at a wedding or an engagement. We give somebody a send-off with a drink at a funeral. I understand that drink was even involved in the celebrations of Margo MacDonald's new accommodation in Parliament headquarters.
The answer must be to promote a responsible attitude towards drinking. Rightly or wrongly, I encourage my children to respect drink and to have friends round for a meal with a glass of wine. Some may frown, but I admire the continental attitude in which wine with a meal is acceptable.
We all, including parents, have a role to play. We politicians should respect that and hope that the Executive will lodge a motion early in the next parliamentary session to tackle the matter.
I suppose that I was of the pursed-mouth variety, because neither of my parents drank and neither did I for a considerable length of time. I was safely through my youth before I was at all interested in alcohol.
The social problems that alcohol causes have already been touched upon. They include crime, disorder and the unprotected sex that is part of the accidental outcome of too much alcohol consumption among the young. The major difficulty is that unhealthy habits are begun at that time. As a result of that, people may end up alcohol dependent for the rest of their adult lives. With that come various mouth and throat cancers, a propensity to high blood pressure and, if people really work at it, cirrhosis of the liver. Gout can also develop in some situations.
The British Medical Association notes in its briefing that a Scottish health study was undertaken among eight-year-olds in 1998. The study found that 12 per cent of boys and 6 per cent of girls of that age said that they had had alcohol. Even allowing for the bravado of children when answering such questions, those are alarming figures. At the age of 15, the figures rise to 67 per cent of boys and 68 per cent of girls.
In a parliamentary answer given on 6 January this year, Mary Mulligan stated:
"23% of 13-year-olds and 46% of 15-year-olds reported that they had drunk alcohol in the previous week."—[Official Report, Written Answers, 6 January 2003; p 2671.]
There are people out there marketing the products, and that is part of the problem. In particular, there is the problem with alcopops: we see these strange, astonishingly colourful drinks on the type of gantries that did not exist when I was a lad. They are designed, through the sweeteners that they contain, to be palatable. Anyone who recalls their first drink will remember that they probably did not like it terribly much, as was the case with their first cup of coffee. It was necessary to persist, for whatever social reasoning, but the alcopop business has got round that. A 1997 health education survey in England stated that 11 to 18-year-olds thought alcopops "cool". There is a need for standard labelling on alcopop bottles, so that kids—or anyone else—know what they are getting into.
Drinking oneself to oblivion has been a long tradition in Scotland. I think that that is largely to do with a lack of hope, but that is a whole other agenda and debate. To sum up—in order to get us all out of here sooner and to prevent the Presiding Officer from tearing his hair out—I take this opportunity, at no risk whatever to my political career, to congratulate Trish Godman on securing the debate. I also congratulate Renfrew Council on Alcohol.
I am struck by the fact that members are almost giving away their generations and ages by indicating their first alcohol of choice. I will not follow that pattern.
Under-age drinking is a major problem in my city-centre constituency. It is a very visible problem, although that is not the whole story—part of the problem is hidden. We all talk about the problem as if it were visible and obvious, but there is a lot of hidden abuse of alcohol by young people, and it is a difficult thing for them to deal with.
I have spoken to representatives of the groups that support young people on my patch and it appears to be easier to resist drugs than it is to resist alcohol. Alcohol is so available—it is easy to get hold of and, because of peer pressure, it is very difficult to resist. Other factors are boredom and lack of confidence and self-esteem. It is not enough simply to look at the issues in isolation—the problems caused by alcohol alone. A lot of good work is being done, and it is appropriate that Trish Godman has highlighted a local group that is working in her constituency and which is making a contribution through joined-up work and education.
In my constituency, work is being done by NCH Scotland and an organisation called Streetwork, which talks to young people and gives them support on the street. Those organisations inform me that they regularly pick up young people—usually young girls—of an average age of 12 who are totally unconscious from heavy binge drinking. Members have already mentioned the dangers of unprotected sex. Children who are already hardened drinkers at the age of 12 are storing up awful health problems and other severe problems for the future.
Members have discussed where young people get access to alcohol. It was made clear to me at a police briefing that I attended last week that it is not just through corner shops that young people get access to alcohol. The problem can lie with parents who supply them with alcohol, or, sometimes, with parents who have alcohol problems. We need a joined-up approach, and one of the issues that we need to address is that of family support. We need alcohol counselling that takes into account the number of young people who live in a family that might be headed up by somebody with alcohol problems. The issue is very difficult.
I hope that the report arising from the Nicholson review will give us a further context in which to tackle under-age drinking. Despite the difficulty of the problem, I believe that a joined-up approach can be effective if it involves local agencies that have credibility, which is critical. Young people need to be able to trust the organisations that provide them with counselling and support. Groups on my patch such as Crew 2000 and Streetwork are able to talk to young people, to engage them in thinking about what is making them turn to alcohol, and to give them a better alternative. Such groups are important.
I congratulate Trish Godman on raising this issue. I hope that when Mary Mulligan sums up the debate, she will discuss the Executive's approach. One of the key problems is resources, and another is the short-term nature of many projects. Voluntary groups are always asking us for long-term support. I do not expect the minister to wave a magic wand, but it would be greatly appreciated if she could provide us with a context that shows how, structurally, we can ensure that organisations survive to do the work that is desperately needed.
One of the most worrying things that I have heard was said a couple of years ago at a conference on the subject of young people's misuse of alcohol, at which I spoke. A lady reported on some research into the attitudes and experiences of teenagers across Europe in which teenagers were asked to list the positive and negative aspects of alcohol. Teenagers from all the other European countries listed a number of positive effects, such as the fact that alcohol makes people feel better. However, they also listed some negative aspects of drinking too much. The Scots who participated in the survey listed no downsides of alcohol. Other speakers have said that we must change attitudes—that attitude is one that must be changed considerably.
Trish Godman, in her excellent opening speech, and other members talked about Scots drinking to oblivion. That is at the heart of the problem. Many continentals drink more in a year than Scots do, but they do not get so drunk. The big problem is binge drinking.
I am grateful to Trish Godman for drawing our attention to the young persons advisory project in Renfrewshire, which sounds interesting and which I will bring to the attention of other people. That excellent project appears to succeed through its speed of response. We all know good organisations, but it takes a while for the system to crank up.
Other members have spoken about off-licences. We must get more of a grip on those off-licences that persistently sell alcohol to under-age people. An issue that has not been mentioned is that of the white vans that come up from the continent to sell cheap booze to people. To an extent, that is a reserved matter, as customs is reserved. However, it should be possible to do more about such vans locally.
My main emphasis is on the need to provide good leisure activities. When we visit schools and ask what the problem is, the kids tell us that there is nothing to do. We must provide good activities for them—both organised youth activities and facilities such as youth cafes, which provide good bases for informal activities and for youth projects such as Streetwork. There is a youth cafe just around the corner from the chamber.
All departments should invest in such facilities. The health department could produce—
Will the member give way?
I am probably not allowed to take an intervention.
On you go, Mr Gorrie—I will have to extend the debate anyway.
For some youngsters, drinking may be a result of boredom. However, in my constituency young people gather to drink behind the swimming pool that provides them with free swimming lessons and free swimming time. They do not engage in such activities. This is not a simple issue of resources. Youngsters need to value themselves, so that they would rather go swimming than stand outside the swimming pool causing bother to those who are going in.
I accept that this is an issue of self-esteem. However, constructive activities—whether physical or social—help people to have higher self-esteem. They also help to combat peer-group pressure to drink too much. Other members have referred to that pressure, which is very strong.
The task is huge. Other members have made some good suggestions. However, if we invest more money from existing budgets in preventive activity—in health and education and in good social, recreational and sporting activities—we will go some way towards dealing with the problem.
At this point, I would be willing to accept a motion without notice to extend the debate by up to 15 minutes.
Motion moved,
That, under Rule 8.14.3, the debate be extended by 15 minutes if required.—[Mr David Davidson.]
Motion agreed to.
I congratulate Trish Godman on securing tonight's debate. The problem is something we all see in our constituencies, regions, towns, and streets on a Friday night, whether on Union Street or in Market Square in Stonehaven—you name it. The problem will not go away unless we take action.
Many people have talked about the risk to health. Young mothers, pregnant women and married women are drinking to oblivion. Why? Because of a lack of education and understanding about the potency and addictive nature of alcohol.
Donald Gorrie mentioned people who lack self-esteem. That is causing a rise in addictive disorders, whether eating disorders such as bulimia, drinking or drugs. That is a fact of life today and it is not being taken seriously enough by all of us in the Parliament. It is not just the Government parties that are responsible; we are all responsible and the public are looking to us to do something.
People have talked about the example set by others. Keith Raffan mentioned marketing and peer pressure. It all adds up. Some have tried to make out that there is a huge retail problem, but the problem is with a few retailers who give the rest a bad name. This week, I met representatives of the Scottish Grocers Federation, who wanted to discuss proof-of-age cards, which is an issue that has been at the back of my mind. We must have a national system, not myriad cards such as the Accord card in Aberdeen and a different card in Glasgow. At the moment the Young Scot card, the Portman card and the Citizen card are all being used as proof-of-age cards. We need a national scheme and the Government should ensure that such a scheme is put in place. There would be less of an abuse problem, although it would take time to educate young people through proper marketing and posters in various outlets and pubs. That is a possible solution and I would like the minister to think about that proposal, take evidence on it and, possibly, ask one of the committees to consider it.
I have another possible solution. Recently, a young postgraduate student came to one of my surgeries to run a business idea past me. It was a simple idea that fits tonight's debate. The large commercial nightclubs in Aberdeen lie empty until late in the evening but there are plenty young people with nowhere to go. The student asked me for guidance in setting up a business so that deals could be done with nightclubs. His idea was that parents could bring their children along—the children would get to go to a proper disco where the big people go, with the right music, the right DJs, properly controlled entry but no alcohol. That creative approach of a young man who was, I think, 21 is the sort of thinking that we should bring into the chamber.
As with so many other issues, I am tempted to tell David Davidson to take a wee trip to Glasgow. He should go down Union Street on a Saturday night, where he will see youngsters under drinking age in clubs until the adults come in. Perhaps Aberdeen could learn from that.
Trish Godman is to be congratulated on securing the debate and on highlighting local work on the issue. It is right to say that under-age drinking causes real concern in many constituencies in Scotland. I want to mention two areas of particular concern.
As Johann Lamont said, education is a key to solving the problem. If I did not know that before, I found it out when I attended a community safety partnership event in my constituency of Strathkelvin and Bearsden. That event was addressed by, among others, fifth-year pupils from Lenzie Academy. They had worrying things to say about access to and experimentation with alcohol—they moved in mixed-age groups, where there was easy access to alcohol.
I trust that the minister will be aware of recent information on the incidence of information and education programmes on alcohol abuse. Those data highlighted worrying disparities between the performance of local authority schools and fee-paying schools in the provision of programmes. I urge the minister to ensure that best practice is disseminated to all our schools. If the fee-paying sector is falling behind, we should name and shame those schools that are not participating in alcohol-abuse programmes. Alcohol may manifest itself differently, but the problem is no respecter of divisions, whether they relate to class or geography.
There is a need for a variety of measures to tackle under-age drinking. The police in my constituency are adopting a commonsense programme, which is to be commended. They summon parents to the places where they have identified youngsters—particularly youngsters who are at risk—who are under-age drinking. During a visit that I undertook with my local police, we discovered two 14-year-old girls in a park in my constituency with a group of men aged between 17 and 25. Rather than removing the girls and taking them to the station, the police summoned their parents. Their parents nearly died when they saw the vulnerable situation that the girls were in—I doubt that those young women will repeat that behaviour. That approach struck me as a constructive way of dealing with the problem, as opposed to the more bureaucratic procedure of taking the youngsters off to a police station and hoping that work could be done there.
I urge us not to take too rosy tinted a view in our retrospective on Scotland's problem with drink. Scotland has always had a problem with drink. I am reminded of my late maternal grandmother, who was for 50 years a pioneer. She was a pioneer because she did not accept that oblivion was the only way in which people could change their social circumstances. She thought that people who accepted oblivion changed nothing. Not much has changed in 50 years, but we should try to do something about this issue.
I congratulate Trish Godman on securing this important debate. Alarm bells started ringing for me about the issue when I visited the accident and emergency unit of Aberdeen royal infirmary, where I was informed by one of the ward sisters that admissions of under-13s to hospital with alcohol problems had increased by about 50 per cent over the past two to three years, so that between 50 and 60 under-13s were being admitted with alcohol problems.
When I lodged a parliamentary question on the number of under-16s being admitted to hospital, I was shocked to learn that Grampian had the worst figures in the country, with 107 admissions in 2001-02. That was 15 per cent of the national figure, although I recognise that each hospital has a different method of recording the statistics. The minister should turn her attention to investigating that. Teenage bravado is turning into hospital cases. That is certainly the case in Grampian. Our medical, social work and teaching professions are being left to pick up the pieces.
For the last youth lifestyle survey in Grampian, first-year to sixth-year secondary school pupils throughout the region were interviewed. Some of the statistics are shocking. They show that the attitude of young people in Grampian towards alcohol is relaxing. Between 1998 and 2001—when the survey was last carried out—the percentage of young people who thought that drinking too much alcohol can cause health problems fell from 85 to 80 per cent. The percentage of young people who thought that drunk people are unpleasant fell from 56 to 48 per cent. The percentage of young people who felt that once someone starts drinking they are unlikely to stop fell from 46 to 37 per cent.
Some statistics increased. The percentage of young people who thought that drinking alcohol was sociable increased from 56 to 60 per cent. The percentage of young people who thought that drinking alcohol was enjoyable increased from 55 to 58 per cent. Indeed, the mean consumption of alcohol among people at secondary schools was 17.8 units. For males, the increase was from 12.3 units in 1995 to 19.4 in 2001. For females, the increase was from 9.7 units in 1995 to 16.4 in 2001.
Those are the last available statistics for secondary pupils in Grampian. I know that the Health Education Board for Scotland has run its "Think about it" campaign since 1997, but I suggest that those figures illustrate that the campaign is not having much impact on young people. The minister should address that issue.
There is a danger that parliamentarians and people throughout the country, despite the good work of our agencies and police forces in places such as Grampian, are taking their eye off the ball, because we are obsessed about the impact of drugs on young people. Perhaps we have taken our eye off the ball too much.
We will not stop under-age drinking; there will always be 16 and 17-year-old kids who want to take a few lagers to their mate's house to have a drink. There is no point in trying to stop that. However, my final plea to the minister is that we identify the underlying trends. People are now more likely to get paralytic, not just merry. Why is that? Why do 57 per cent of young people think that they must drink alcohol to escape stressful lives and why do a similar proportion of young people think that local communities do not have enough facilities as an alternative to drinking alcohol and taking drugs?
I, too, congratulate Trish Godman on securing the debate. For some of us at least, it is easy to stand in the chamber and talk about the problem without knowing it face to face. However, the problem came home to me when, not very long ago, my wife and I had a telephone call one Sunday morning from Raigmore to tell us that our son was in hospital and had taken too much drink the night before, after a dance in Tain. Been there, done that—it is called doing a Euan Blair.
I wondered whether I should give him the most almighty roasting of his life or take the more gentle way to stop him. I took the more gentle way and said, "The bad news, lad, is that because I am an MSP, you are liable to find yourself on the front page of the Ross-shire Journal." He said, "Oh my God, Dad—I hope not." In a way, that taught him a lesson. The problem exists and is among us. In many ways, that experience was necessary to bring the problem home to me.
We have talked of the culture of drink. I have worked in Sicily and in the Faroe islands, so I have seen both extremes of European drink culture. That is a debate for another day; Donald Gorrie and I discussed the issue earlier. It would be worth while for the Parliament to talk the matter through. Is drinking macho because drink is special and hard to get at? Is that why the French, the Italians and other people from Mediterranean countries do not have the problem that exists in northern climes, or is the problem related to climate and light? That debate is interesting.
The heart of the problem is binge drinking. That is not only an inner-city problem, which Sarah Boyack talked about. In a constituency such as mine, the matter is uppermost in our minds. To that end, I recently talked to head teachers of some local secondary schools, including Tain Royal Academy, Farr High School in Bettyhill and Thurso High School. It was put to me fairly strongly—it was not said to do down the excellent work that has been undertaken—that, by building on the guidance system in our secondary schools, the problem could be further tackled.
I do not know whether extra resources need to be provided or existing resources need to be redirected, but the schools suggested two points. One is the notion of taking into a school somebody who has had a drink problem and who can talk about cirrhosis of the liver and teenage pregnancies. That does the trick in a way that a teacher, an MSP or anyone else talking at the young people cannot. The second idea—I was struck by it—relates to the medium of drama. Role playing can be surprisingly successful and drink workshops might be held. The head teacher of Farr High School, Jim Johnston, gave a surprising example of a recent role-playing workshop about road safety, which he said impacted on the students in a way that nothing else had ever done.
Those two positive suggestions could be considered. I do not know whether they would require the redirection of existing money or extra money. We must co-ordinate more. I am sure that, using her good offices, the minister could think about that. I would be grateful if those suggestions were taken on board.
I congratulate Trish Godman on securing the debate. I listened with interest to her speech and to all the other speeches. As ever, the debate has been lively. The number of contributors makes it clear that the motion struck a chord with many members. That is also evident from the number of written and oral questions that members have asked in recent months about young people's drinking and about alcohol problems more generally. As has been said, we have not had an Executive debate on the issue, but the matter has been discussed in several related debates.
We commend the valuable work of Renfrew Council on Alcohol to get young people who are drinking back on track. I understand that the project has won several awards for its innovative approach. It is clear that it is a partnership in the true sense of the word. It is such locally driven multi-agency approaches—I apologise for the jargon, but members know what I mean—that are most likely to succeed.
All the members who have spoken today have noted the scale and complexity of tackling under-age drinking in Scotland. Issues that relate to our European neighbours have been mentioned enough times in the debate to warrant another debate. Young Scots, however, are drinking more than ever before. The figures have been quoted in the debate and I will not repeat them.
Young people drink for all sorts of reasons. Some drink to show their independence; others drink because their friends do. Some drink because adults tell them not to; others follow the example of their role models. Parents are a powerful influence, but they sometimes give out mixed messages. As Sarah Boyack said, parents can be a bad example.
I was interested in the example that Brian Fitzpatrick quoted in respect of the actions of local police. I contrast that example with the experience of the police in my area. When the police take home some children who have consumed amounts of alcohol, the reaction of parents has been to say that what the children did was okay, as only alcohol was involved. We have to fight against that kind of mixed message. For some young people, early experimentation is nothing more than that but, unfortunately, for an increasing number, those early experiences lead to a lifetime of problems with alcohol.
As members have mentioned, last January we published the "Plan for Action on alcohol problems". The plan set out an ambitious framework for reducing alcohol-related harm. It made clear our determination to change the cultures that surround drinking in Scotland and tackle the many entrenched attitudes, including the acceptance of binge drinking as the norm and a view that getting drunk is acceptable and fun. Reducing harmful drinking by children and young people is a key priority of the plan. Action to achieve that aim is under way on a number of fronts, but I have time to touch on only a few of them today.
The role of schools has been mentioned. In partnership with parents and the community, schools can make a difference to young people's behaviour. Ninety-five per cent of all schools provide alcohol education as part of their drug education programmes and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education is currently evaluating the effectiveness of those programmes.
We have also set up the Scottish health promoting schools unit to assist schools to foster mental, physical and social well-being and healthy development. The aim is to develop young people's self-esteem. All schools are expected to be health-promoting schools by 2007. We are developing a national alcohol communications strategy that will include targeted advertising and promotion to challenge the binge-drinking culture. New resources are being developed for parents to help them to discuss alcohol issues with their children.
We are also continuing to provide funding for HEBS and Alcohol Focus Scotland to provide information and advice about under-age and excessive drinking and to undertake a wide variety of preventive activities with schools and youth and community groups. Alcohol Focus Scotland recently held a seminar on young people that included a presentation by Renfrew Council on Alcohol. The seminar highlighted the need to improve the way in which information about good practice is shared. We will think about how we can assist in that process.
Prevention and education help to encourage young people to make sensible choices. At the same time, we need to have effective controls. Efforts are being made to influence the supply of alcohol to children through trials of proof-of-age schemes. David Davidson said that we should pursue those schemes. We need to see how the trials develop and learn from them. Many councils have introduced public byelaws to curb drinking by young people in public places and those byelaws have been used extensively by the police. In that respect, we need to look again at the influence of parents.
Does the minister agree that the problem with byelaws that prevent people from drinking in one place is that those people simply move to another part of the community? Does she agree that the use of byelaws can have the effect of hiding the problem?
I agree that the answer is not to hide the problem elsewhere, but certain places attract inappropriate drinking and we need to deal with that.
We need to consider the influence of parents. Perhaps it is not such a bad thing to introduce young people to drinking before they are 18 if that can be done in a responsible and supervised manner. That needs to be debated and talked about, particularly with young people. Under-age drinking is one of the areas being examined as part of the review of licensing law, and the Nicholson committee undertaking the review is due to report in the next few months.
I have raised concerns about certain advertising and marketing practices with the UK Government. That area will be considered at UK level as the Cabinet Office strategy unit develops an alcohol harm reduction strategy for England.
I think that it was Colin Campbell who mentioned labelling. We must be careful with labelling because it can have a perverse incentive if it allows people to see how strong a drink is. However, we need to consider that further.
The "Plan for Action on alcohol problems" acknowledges the need to improve services for people with alcohol problems, including those for young people. In September, we published the "Alcohol Problems Support and Treatment Services Framework", which noted that a young person's alcohol problems cannot be tackled in isolation, and that support and treatment services need to work closely with others.
The "Plan for Action on alcohol problems" makes clear the Executive's determination to tackle young people's drinking. We are under no illusion about the scale of the task, or of the effort required to make a step change in the culture that has developed. However, I believe that an important start has been made, and that initiatives such as the young persons advisory project in Renfrew is a good example of what can be achieved through the partnership approach.
Meeting closed at 17:32.