Alcohol-related Crime (Highlands and Islands)
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S2M-5280, in the name of Maureen Macmillan, on the rise in alcohol-related crime figures in the Highlands and Islands. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes with concern the serious rise in alcohol-related crime figures, released by Northern Constabulary, which show a year-on-year increase in drunkenness, drink-driving, serious assaults and alcohol-related deaths; notes in particular the increase in the number of people being arrested for drunkenness, including the charge of being drunk and incapable; commends the work of CrossReach in Inverness, which provides a purpose-built residential service designed to care for people who have difficulty in managing their alcohol and/or drug abuse and which also provides a "designated place", thereby offering an alternative to custody for those who have been arrested for public drunkenness offences; welcomes the campaign being launched by Northern Constabulary alongside the Highland Drug and Alcohol Action Team's festive drinking campaign which it is hoped will prevent drinkers ending up in police cells and hospital wards over Christmas and New Year, and endorses the "Don't push it" campaign being run by the Scottish Executive asking Scots to take responsibility for themselves and to think first before they encourage others to have "just another drink".
I did not mean to be the Christmas killjoy when I lodged my motion, but I am conscious that many of my Labour colleagues are having their Christmas party tonight and, almost at this very moment, our admirers in the media are offering MSPs festive cheer in another place. However, let those of us who are in the chamber be part of the annual campaign for sensible drinking.
I lodged the motion after paying a visit to the Church of Scotland's alcohol rehabilitation centre and designated places unit in Inverness. Almost at the same time as my visit, the Northern constabulary released its latest crime figures, which showed an increase in alcohol-related offences, and the Highland drug and alcohol action team, in conjunction with the Scottish Executive, had launched its seasonal campaign to advise people to use alcohol wisely.
The omens for the festive season are not good. What has been described as the endless booze party in the Highlands will, I fear, continue over Christmas and new year. The Northern constabulary's latest figures show increases in drunkenness, drink-driving and drink-related serious assaults. In fact, the police doubt whether any assaults are not fuelled by alcohol. In the past two weeks, about 100 assaults have taken place in the area.
The messages from the HDAAT and the Executive are good messages about not pressuring friends into having a drink if they do not want one and about not feeling pressured oneself. In a Scottish Executive survey, 40 per cent of young male Highlanders—men in the 18 to 24 age group—said that they had on occasion, even though they did not really want a drink, taken a drink because their friends were drinking. Some 30 per cent said that they had sometimes wakened in the morning not knowing how many drinks they had had the night before.
Why do young men—and now young women, too—measure prowess by drinking capacity, given all the attendant health and safety risks? Alcohol abuse can end up being a justice issue when crimes are committed but, first and foremost, it is a public health issue. That is endorsed by the World Health Organisation. Misuse of alcohol can put at risk the drinker's health and the health and well-being of others with whom he or she interacts. Tragically, the sort of brain damage and liver damage that was once seen only in hardened drinkers in late middle age is now seen in young men and women in their 20s.
According to the Institute of Alcohol Studies, which has compared alcohol misuse across the European Union, young men in the 18 to 24 age group in the United Kingdom drink heavily on average about five times per month. That compares with twice per month for young adults in Finland and with the even less frequent instances for young adults in, in descending order, Italy, Sweden, Germany and France. Such heavy drinking affects people's work, education, health and families. As we have seen, it also leads to crime, which in turn affects the health, safety and welfare of others.
We know what the problem is and we know what its effects are, so how do we move from our current situation in Scotland, where going out to eat and drink means a packet of crisps and 10 pints, to the situation in Italy, where going out means a four-course meal and perhaps one glass of wine? What are the solutions?
I believe that we need more commitment from the drinks industry. Diageo produces drinks information cards that explain safe alcohol levels. That is good, but where are the Diageo sports and leisure centres that could offer young men and women an alternative to bingeing? As Inspector Bob Pollok of the Northern constabulary pointed out to me, once upon a time the brewers built the Usher hall and the McEwan hall. He is right—we should demand more of the drinks industry.
Let us change the kinds of pubs that we have. They encourage drinking by playing loud music. Somebody tried to explain to me what the music that they play is called—it is something like "trans beat". Seemingly, it is the same sort of rhythm as a heartbeat and, when it is played loudly, it makes for aggression, as does people standing packed closely together. That is not to mention the fact that it kills off conversation entirely.
Let us also crack down on bad management of pubs. The new licensing legislation should deliver that if the licensing standards officers go in tough at the start, so that rowdiness is curbed before it spills out on to the streets rather than being dealt with afterwards.
I am grateful to the member for allowing me to make a short intervention, which will be my only contribution to the debate on account of a disappearing voice.
Does Maureen Macmillan agree that the pressures that she accurately describes about the effects of excess drink having been taken—especially in the city centre of Inverness at the weekends, when huge numbers of people are on the streets—put a huge strain on the police force, and that it is believed, locally, that the complement of police officers is about 20 officers short of the number that is needed to deal with the strains that excessive consumption of alcohol cause?
I have spoken to the area commander on this issue and he is confident that the police can cope with the situation. I know that it is tough for them, but they are well used to dealing with such situations. Unfortunately, the problems that we are discussing are not new in the Highlands; they have been going on in Inverness and other Highland towns and villages for a long time.
We should ask supermarkets to stop selling cheap beer—a can of beer is now cheaper than a bottle of water. Furthermore, let us consider offering anger-management strategies so that people know to stop drinking and leave when their pal begins to niggle them, instead of continuing drinking and ending up fighting. We should bring alcohol awareness right down into primary schools. By the time a child is eight, it has become part of its family or community culture and it might even have had a drink or two. We must also work with families. That has had a positive effect in Europe, as has taxing of alcopops, particularly in Switzerland.
We should ask the media to cut down on the amount of drinking that is shown incidentally on television. I watched a police show the other night and noticed that every other scene had people drinking wine or beer in it, which was quite incidental to the action. Would it also be possible to not have radio programmes in which musicians—especially folk musicians—boast about how they woke up in Drumnadrochit or Fort Augustus not knowing where they had been the night before? In other words, since our relationship with alcohol pervades Scottish culture, we must let the solutions also be all pervasive.
We must find out what works in rehabilitation; for example, the Church of Scotland's programme has an 80 per cent success rate for those who complete it. We must also consider what works in prevention—the Institute of Alcohol Studies suggests that working with families is important in that regard. We must think about what works in relation to sanctions and penalties, including alcohol-awareness courses for drink-drivers and others who are convicted of alcohol-related offences. We must roll out those programmes across the country, because the problem is the same across the country. In Glasgow city centre and Highland villages, alcohol abuse is wrecking lives—young lives.
I know that the Scottish Executive is giving serious consideration to how it can tackle alcohol abuse. I hope that this debate will help.
I congratulate Maureen Macmillan on securing the debate and commend her for using her speech to frame the problem that we are discussing as a public health issue, which it is, and for making a number of positive suggestions. I hope that we will hear similarly positive suggestions from other members and that they will be added to the inventory of ideas that the minister can apply to the problem in due course.
I agree with Maureen Macmillan about the good work that is done by CrossReach, Northern constabulary and the Highland drug and alcohol action team. They are working together to address the issues and help people. However, at best, those well-motivated people can treat only the symptoms of the problem. The core problem, which needs to be addressed, is deeper and is a combination of the drinking culture to which Maureen Macmillan referred, which needs to be challenged, and economic conditions that do little to help some people to move beyond that culture, despite much effort on the part of the Executive and others to promote responsible drinking.
Most of us have enjoyed the positive aspects of Highland conviviality that are the by-product of a drink with family and friends, but many of us also know of family and friends who have been ensnared by drink and drugs and have lost licences, relationships, jobs and businesses. Perhaps we know people who have come to the attention of the police and been captured in police statistics. Such problems are not obviously a by-product of the economics of the Highlands. The good and talented Highland friends of mine who did not live to see their 60th birthdays all worked and owned their homes—some even owned businesses. However, a closer look at their circumstances indicates that they were under more economic strain than their talents and personalities deserved and that they might have achieved more elsewhere, in different conditions.
There are people outwith my circle of friends and not of my generation, who are not in employment, education or training, or who have jobs that neither satisfy nor reward them properly. Such people have an increased propensity to be captured by drink and drugs and an increased chance of becoming police statistics. That is why alcohol-related crime cannot be reduced just by direct action on the symptoms or by focusing only on the people who are currently involved in such crime.
We need a three-pronged approach. First, the work of CrossReach, Northern constabulary, the Highland drug and alcohol action team, NHS Highland and other agencies and voluntary groups must continue, so that people and their families can be helped in the here and now.
Secondly, we must boost the local economy. Complacent nonsense about how unemployment is lower in the Highlands and Islands and the fact that the area's population is growing misses the point: the area is exporting its unemployed people and the population is aging rapidly. We must expose the nature of low income in the Highlands and Islands and start to drive up incomes, by using the current situation as a positive opportunity to attract investment. The fact that people are willing to come to the Highlands to live and work for marginally less income will propel the economy forward. We must also acknowledge that we need more powers so that we can compete.
Thirdly, we must start to educate new generations about the ravages and life-shortening effects of drink and drugs. There should be more pitches in schools on the issue. Perhaps pupils could hear anonymous personal testaments that would tell them about the prognosis for people who embark on a life of drinking and drug taking.
The police told me that they think people drink more now than they did in the past because they have more leisure time and more money in their pockets.
The member makes an interesting point, which might well be a contributory factor. However, a doctor in Shettleston said that people who have money in their pockets and are doing well tend to make better choices. Too many people make self-destructive choices because they have no confidence in who they are, their capabilities and their future. It is incumbent on us to create the conditions in which people can have such confidence.
I live in and represent the Highlands and Islands and I am only too aware of alcohol-related crime in the region. Alcohol-related disorder is rarely out of the headlines in the media and I congratulate Maureen Macmillan on giving us an opportunity to debate this alarming issue.
It is appalling but unfortunately not surprising that there has been a rise in alcohol-related crime. The binge drinking culture is on the rise throughout the United Kingdom and the Highlands and Islands, despite their remoteness, are not immune from the growing trend. There is evidence of a perception that more alcohol-related crime takes place than is actually the case, which leads many people to avoid city centres in the evenings, particularly at weekends, and generates a fear that honest, law-abiding people are under siege in their homes. However, when Northern constabulary released figures on 4 December, which showed a clear year-on-year increase in alcohol-related crimes in the Highlands and Islands, no one was left in any doubt that we have a serious problem.
It is estimated that about 40 per cent of violent crimes, 78 per cent of assaults, and 88 per cent of cases of criminal damage happen under the influence of alcohol. When we consider the Scottish health survey findings that 5 per cent of men and 2 per cent of women are unable to stop drinking, it is not hard to find a link. In addition, an estimated 180,000 annual accident and emergency attendances in Scotland are alcohol related. That costs the tax payer £9.6 million. The trend is worrying and a massive drain on public resources.
In the Highland region, there were 62 alcohol-related deaths in 2004—more than one a week. The number of women prosecuted for drink-driving has nearly doubled in the past five years—a further demonstration of the rise in the number of young women drinking inappropriately and to excess. Throughout Scotland, there has been a big increase in underage drinking. In 2004-05, there were 51 cases of under-16s who were proven to have been drink-driving. That figure rose to 142 for 17-year-olds.
I am pleased that £9 million will be invested in alcohol rehabilitation over the next three years. Rehabilitation is an invaluable tool, but we must also examine social alternatives to drinking. I am totally convinced that prevention is better than cure and that more emphasis on extra-curricular activities for pupils would pay dividends in the long run.
I am delighted that community initiatives such as CrossReach in Inverness are working effectively with individuals who have fallen victim to alcohol addiction. CrossReach has the aim of assisting people to return to the community dependency free. It has a dedicated staff working through Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as well as through voluntary work and craft work that can help to boost confidence and social skills. Using themed activities—ranging from sports to quizzes to crafts—it is able to work with individuals to restore their belief in their ability to exist away from their dependency.
I am pleased that Highland drug and alcohol action team has launched such an effective Christmas campaign. The distribution of goody bags in Eastgate shopping centre in Inverness, with anti-binge drinking literature, is a great way to take the message to the people. In addition, the inclusion by Morrisons, Tesco, Spar and the Co-op of alcohol information with alcohol products will, I hope, go some way to getting the message home.
Christmas is traditionally the time when we all go out to a host of seasonal parties and nights out, and at times we drink to excess. Christmas is also a time when people are killed on our roads, when our casualty wards are at their fullest, and when our prisons have to cope with added pressure. Our actions have a consequence and we must never forget that. A Christmas drink or two is not wrong, and we should enjoy getting together and celebrating the season. However, when that is done to excess, gets out of hand and affects those around us, it is out of order.
I congratulate Northern constabulary on all the work that it does over the festive period, and the rest of the year, to keep our streets safe and to try to maintain order. I very much hope that the many seasonal campaigns will pay off this year, and that this will be one of the quietest December periods on record.
I, too, congratulate Maureen Macmillan on securing the debate. If colleagues will bear with me, I ought to declare an interest. Some 17 years ago, I was done for drink-driving. It made the headlines in the local papers in the Highlands—Tain councillor put off the road. So, I have the T-shirt, and I hope that what I say does not smack of hypocrisy. I would not wish it to do so.
I want to discuss two particular themes. I was interested in what Maureen Macmillan and others said about countries such as the Scandinavian countries. In my time, I have worked in the Faroes and in Italy, as members will know. It is true to say that there is a lot in the differences in culture. I say to Maureen Macmillan that Italian families would indeed have four courses, but they might have slightly more than one glass of wine. However, she is dead right to say that Italy does not have repetitive instances of drunkenness. I lived with an Italian family for a longish period and I know that to be true.
I want to take Jim Mather up on one point. I worked in the Faroes a long time ago. It was an exceedingly prosperous place—it still is—because of the fisheries and the amount of fish being processed. People had a lot of disposable income, but the instances of drunkenness were quite terrifying. The taxation regime in those days was extremely draconian: a person could buy drink only if they had paid their income tax. The drink came in every quarter from Copenhagen. Sadly, the people I worked with would go on binges that I did not know that human beings could have, they were so bad. The enormity of the problem was terrifying.
We could talk until the cows come home about whether the problem is to do with the northern light or northern climes, which differ from those in the Mediterranean. We do not know; our experts are working on that. However, Maureen Macmillan was right—the evidence shows that there is definitely a correlation between the cheapness and availability of drink to people with a disposable income and alcoholism and alcohol-related problems, and we should bear that in mind.
My second point relates to my constituency. This morning, by complete coincidence—it had been scheduled in my diary for a long time—I had a meeting with Steve March and Jack Law of Alcohol Focus Scotland. They said that there are councils on alcohol for all parts of the Highlands except Caithness. There was a Caithness council on alcohol until quite recently but, for reasons that I will not go into here, it came to the end of its existence. The result is that although Alcohol Focus Scotland spent thousands of pounds on training up people to provide advice on the control of drink rather than total abstinence, those people are not being utilised in the county of Caithness.
It is hard to estimate the number of people who might be affected, but Alcohol Focus Scotland says that at least 100 and perhaps as many as 200 people would be using that service if it existed. Apparently, about £7,500 was provided by the Highland Council and £7,500 by NHS Highland. That makes a total of £15,000, but the service is not there. I bring to the attention of colleagues and the minister the fact that, for reasons that will have to be investigated, Caithness does not have the alcohol advice service that other parts of the Highlands enjoy.
The net result of that is perfectly simple. Regardless of whether the figure is 100 or 200, there are people in Caithness who are probably in a great deal of trouble with alcohol and who are not getting the advice, support and assistance that they need to bring them back from the brink and to improve their lives and those of their partners and loved ones. As someone who believes that everyone has the same right to services, regardless of whether they live in Thurso, Airdrie or Edinburgh, I think that we have a problem in Caithness. I merely give the minister and colleagues notice that the issue needs to be addressed. I do not want to condemn anyone unfairly or to guess at the reasons behind the situation, but the net result is that in Caithness we do not have a service that we badly need. Fifteen thousand pounds is not big bucks. Meantime, my constituents are losing out.
I thank Maureen Macmillan for securing a debate on what is, unfortunately, an important issue.
In the run-up to the debate, I obtained some figures. Unfortunately, because they come from an article in The Independent, they are United Kingdom-wide rather than specific to Highland. However, the figures for Highland will probably not be any better than those for the UK as a whole and might be worse. The article said that over the 12 days of Christmas, the average Briton will get through 18 pints of beer, three bottles of wine, one bottle of spirits and four glasses of fortified wine, which amounts to the consumption of 137 units of alcohol in less than two weeks. That is equivalent to drinking four times the recommended limit for men and six times the recommended limit for women.
I looked at the figures and thought, "Oh, I would never drink 18 pints of beer." The scary thing is that I thought that three bottles of wines, one bottle of spirits and four glasses of fortified wine over the two weeks at Christmas—which is what is left after the 18 pints of beer have been removed from the equation—did not sound that much. That reveals how we regard alcohol. Even without the beer, that amount of alcohol works out at three and a half times the limit for women and two and a half times the limit for men. In our society, we have become quite tolerant of the regular consumption of a large amount of alcohol.
Price cutting by supermarkets and cheap drinks promotions in bars have fuelled the situation and, as Maureen Macmillan has said, pressure from so-called friends to have another drink exacerbates the problem. Of course, the UK has always been near the top of the binge-drinking league and, while Jamie Stone was speaking, I wondered whether there might be a Scandinavian genetic cause, because excessive drinking seems to be very much a northern European rather than a southern European thing. Although a lot of drinking might go on in southern Europe, there is not so much drunkenness or binge drinking.
The health effects are well known, but the motion focuses on crime. In that context, there is one other statistic that I want to mention, given that I know that Maureen Macmillan has an interest in domestic violence—32 per cent of cases of violence between intimate partners occur when the perpetrator is under the influence of alcohol. That is quite frightening. Alcohol is fuelling violence not only on the streets but in the home.
NHS Highland's funding for drug and alcohol action teams has gone from just under £0.25 million in 1999-2000 to just over £1.1 million in the most recent financial year. Although I welcome that funding, I am saddened by the need for it. I was also saddened to note that Ross and Cromarty, where both Maureen Macmillan and I live, comes out worst in Northern constabulary's statistics for drink-driving in the past two years. I therefore welcome any initiatives to tackle the problem.
I want to pick up on a couple of points that other members made. First, I put on my folk music hat. Maureen Macmillan said that unhelpful things are portrayed or said in broadcasting, but my point also ties in with what Jim Mather and Dave Petrie said about people doing other things and having social alternatives to drinking. Something that has been good for young people in Ross-shire and throughout the Highlands is the fèis movement, where the kids play music. If people are playing music, even in pubs, they are not drinking, or not drinking much. The kids find that there is something for them to do that is important, enjoyable, sociable and good for their self-esteem but which does not involve drinking alcohol.
My other point is about culture change. Maureen Macmillan talked about our relationship with food and drink. There is perhaps a glimmer of hope in the Highlands, where there is a reviving food culture. In Joanna Blythman's book "Bad Food Britain", she makes the valid point that our bad relationship with food, our poor food culture and the loss of our food culture go hand in hand with our relationship with drink. In other countries, drink is something that people have with food and it enhances their enjoyment of food, but because we have lost the pleasures of cooking and food, we have lost the pleasure of having alcohol in its proper place.
I wish the Highland drug and alcohol action team well with its campaign. I hope that people realise over the festive season that indulgence need not mean excess.
I congratulate Maureen Macmillan on bringing this debate to the chamber. It is particularly appropriate that we discuss the matter at this time of year. Our message must be not that people should not enjoy socialising or having a drink at a Christmas party, but that we want to encourage a more responsible attitude towards the use of alcohol in Scotland. In order to do that, we must become more aware of the impact of alcohol on our health and our communities.
Alcohol is and has ever been part of Scotland's culture. Most people in Scotland enjoy a drink and most people drink sensibly. We want to promote that approach to alcohol. In spite of the problems that we have heard about, we should not overlook the fact that many people enjoy alcohol without harming themselves or anyone else. We must be careful not to create an overly negative impression when we talk about alcohol, because responsible drinking can indeed—in northern Europe as well as in southern Europe—be part of a healthy, happy and sociable lifestyle.
Nevertheless, we recognise that we have problems with excessive drinking, which includes binge drinking and the cumulative effect of drinking just a bit too much day after day, year after year. Four years ago, we published our "Plan for Action on alcohol problems", which set out a range of actions to seek a cultural shift to a point where alcohol was treated more appropriately. I will mention briefly a couple of things that developed on the back of that.
We provided additional funding of £10 million this year and last year for alcohol treatment and rehabilitation services. We heard about some of those this evening. National communications campaigns have been run to challenge harmful attitudes and behaviour. Maureen Macmillan's motion mentions the don't push it campaign, which encourages individuals to take responsibility for their behaviour and not to persuade others to drink more. Members might have seen the campaign on television this week.
We published a guide for parents, to help them talk to their children about alcohol and we developed a set of national leaflets that give factual and consistent advice on sensible drinking. We also support school-based programmes such as choices for life and a new media literacy pilot to encourage a more balanced portrayal of alcohol and alcohol problems. Maureen Macmillan mentioned the unbalanced portrayal that is sometimes seen. We are keen to address that.
In the Highlands and throughout Scotland, drug and alcohol action teams are co-ordinating action effectively to meet the particular needs of their communities. We need to build on that progress. We will shortly update the action plan on alcohol problems to promote a more responsible approach to alcohol.
Maureen Macmillan talked about the role of the alcohol industry. I am pleased to report that we are in the process of developing a formal agreement with key partners in the industry. We are already doing joint work on guidelines on the responsible promotion of alcohol, a common set of responsible drinking messages and the development of exemplary workplace alcohol policies. That is a good start and it is setting us off in the direction of what I hope will become a long-term partnership that broadens to involve interests that are not involved at present. At present, the partners are mainly on the production side, but we hope to include businesses that are involved in retailing and the licensed trade.
Maureen Macmillan and several other members highlighted the excellent work of CrossReach in Inverness, which provides a place of safety for those who are drunk and incapable as an alternative to the police cells, and an opportunity for people to access longer-term support if that is what they need. I recently visited the similar Albyn House Association project in Aberdeen, when I attended the launch of Alcohol Support, which has brought together Albyn House with the local Alcohol Advisory and Counselling Service. I was impressed by the quality of the facility there and the dedication of the staff. I understand that CrossReach is similar in many respects, including the quality of the provision. It was interesting for me to see in Aberdeen the effective joining up of services that voluntary sector partners provide.
Facilities such as designated places of safety and rehabilitation services ease pressure not just on police cells, but on accident and emergency services, and provide protection for individuals who would otherwise be at risk in several ways.
The minister's comments are all welcome. Does he agree that the police are under strength in Inverness city centre and that the rise in the population in Inverness during the day, because of people travelling to the city to work, and in the evening, because of people travelling to the city to play, is proportionately far larger than that in any other city in Scotland, and that it is not taken into account in the calculation of police numbers? Will he therefore agree to consult colleagues in the Justice Department about whether there are enough police officers on the beat in Inverness to deal with the problems that are the consequences of excess drink being taken, which members have described?
I am sure that Mr Ewing will acknowledge that there are more police officers in Scotland now than there have ever been and that that is an important step in achieving the protection that is needed. My recent experience is not in Inverness, but in Aberdeen, which is similar in that it is a regional centre into which many people from rural areas come of a weekend to drink. A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go on patrol with the police in Aberdeen city centre into the small hours of a Saturday morning. I was impressed by the way in which they made effective use of their resource. I suspect that if I inquired about the issue with Northern constabulary, I would hear that the same takes place in Inverness.
Measures can be taken to assist the police in their work. Establishing effective places of safety is one of them. The measures that we have put in place through the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 will be significant and will have a particular relevance to city centres. The 2005 act will, for the first time, allow overprovision of existing licensed premises to be a consideration in the licensing process. In the past couple of years, the police have acquired new powers under antisocial behaviour legislation and a power to carry out test purchasing of alcohol by underage people. The evidence from the current pilot scheme suggests that the power is helpful in allowing the police to use their resources more effectively and to nip problems in the bud.
There is an issue with binge drinking and young people drinking in city centres at the weekend, but we would be mistaken if we thought that that was the extent of the issue of alcohol as a challenge to our health. The statistics show that, sadly, the consequences of long-term misuse of alcohol have become more serious in recent years.
I am sorry that Jim Mather was not enthusiastic about celebrating the success of the Highland economy, but I know that many others in the Highlands are. One of the consequences of a successful economy is that there is substantial disposable income, which can have consequences for the choices people make. However, as others have said, choices are sometimes influenced by poverty as well as by large amounts of disposable income.
We should acknowledge that in recent years there has been more long-term excessive consumption of alcohol, of which there are consequences. We in the Government have a duty to work with the voluntary sector, the alcohol industry, the police, the NHS and other services to develop a long-term vision and recognise that the issue is as much about culture change as anything else. We need to effect such a change and we will continue to work to do so. I hope that we will have broad-based support for that.
Meeting closed at 18:11.