The Scottish Government has issued National Guidance for 2013-14 on delivery of the current HEAT Standard for Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABI), which includes delivery in primary care. The HEAT Standard is based on SIGN and NICE guidelines and so in line with clinical guidance and a wealth of international evidence that alcohol brief interventions are effective in reducing consumption.

The findings of the SIPS trial study in England are of interest and confirm that primary care is an environment where people will consent and are willing to receive feedback, written information and advice about their drinking behaviour. Such a process is already established in many areas throughout Scotland as a result of the national ABI programme.

<>Publications showing the number of liquor licence applications granted can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubLiquor.

Applications for 2010-11 and 2011-12 are granted under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, which came fully into force in September 2009. No data were collected in 2008 and 2009 during the transition to the new legislation.

Prior to this, licences were issued under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976. Due to differences in how licences are administered under the current arrangements compared with the previous, the figures from 2011-12 and 2010-11 cannot be compared directly with those from earlier years.

Alcohol sales data is generally accepted, including by the World Health Organisation, to be a more robust measure of total population consumption than self-report survey. The most recent alcohol sales data (2011) for Scotland and England and Wales was published by NHS Health Scotland in August 2012 and can be found at:

http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/20287-MESAS%202012%20Update.pdf. These data suggest that in 2011 Scots drank around a fifth more alcohol per adult than our counterparts England and Wales.

<>Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland’s Alcohol Strategy: Second Annual Report includes trends in self-report consumption, alcohol sales (generally accepted to be a more robust measure of total population consumption than self-report survey data) and the average price of alcohol for the longest time series currently available. The report was published by NHS Health Scotland in December 2012 and is available at: http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/20107-MESASCombinedReportNov2012.pdf.

Self-reported consumption data for 2011 is available from the Scottish Health Survey http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0040/00402630.pdf.

I regularly meet all Cabinet Secretaries, including the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, to discuss the relationship between portfolios and to ensure that the government of Scotland continues to be delivered in an integrated and co-ordinated manner.

Local authorities have a statutory duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to provide voluntary throughcare which consists of advice guidance and assistance to people who request such a service within 12 months of their release from custody, including those released following an appeal against conviction and/or sentence.

Further to this, the Miscarriage of Justice Organisation for Scotland, (MOJOS), has received Scottish Government funding under Section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 since 1 April 2005. The funding for 2013-14 is £62,700.

The grant funds MOJOS to provide a one-stop service to assist clients and their families to gain access to benefits, housing, health services, and to provide access to counselling, reintegration and financial advice. Priority is given to supporting individuals who have had their case referred to the High Court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission; individuals released by the High Court following such a referral; and individuals coming from other UK jurisdictions in similar circumstances who intend to settle in Scotland.

The Military Scholarships applies to all bereaved children across the UK (of personnel who have died in service) to enable them to complete further and higher education studies.

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 local authorities have a duty to provide adequate and efficient provision of school education for all children residing in their local area. It is for local authorities to determine how they accommodate a request for a school place for a child of a Service family.

Information on the number of gun licences withdrawn on review is not available. Information on the number of firearm and shotgun certificates both refused and revoked is available from the Firearm Certificates Statistics, Scotland statistical bulletin series, which can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubFirearmCertificates.

<>The most recent update of the University of Sheffield alcohol pricing model was published in January 2012 and can be accessed at: http://www.shef.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.156503!/file/scotlandjan.pdf. This estimated that a total ban on off-trade discounting would result in a decrease in overall consumption of 3%. A total ban is assumed to prohibit all forms of price-based promotion, including straight discounting from list price in addition to quantity discounts.

The ban implemented in the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Act 2010, which came into force in October 2011, relates to a quantity discount ban only (for example, buy 3 for the price of 2, 3 bottles of wine for £10 etc.). Due to unavailability of data, it is not possible for the University of Sheffield to estimate the impact on consumption of the quantity discount ban alone.

NHS Health Scotland is due to publish a detailed analysis of the impact of the quantity discount ban on consumption in Scotland in the coming months.