Chamber and committees

The current system of alcohol taxation is a historical anomaly in need of urgent review. Increasing taxes on alcohol shows that the UK Government agrees with our long-standing position that alcohol is not an ordinary commodity, but the UK Budget 2009 persists with the situation that allows high strength cheap cider to be taxed at a lower level than comparable beers and lagers. The Scottish Government wishes to link alcohol duty directly to alcohol content in order to better reflect the needs and interests of Scotland''s economy and society.

The Scottish Government''s overall alcohol policy objective is to change Scotland''s relationship with alcohol, and our Framework for Action (Bib. number 47805) sets out a series of measures to work towards achieving this. Some are specific legislative measures designed to effect change in the short-term and others focus on creating cultural change over a much longer period. There is strong and consistent evidence linking the price of alcohol to the demand for alcohol - increasing the price of alcohol reduces consumption and alcohol-related harm. That is why minimum pricing is one of the measures we are proposing to introduce. The increase in alcohol duty in the UK Budget 2009 is a 2% rise in all duty rates for alcohol, which maintains the position whereby, for instance, Scotch whisky is taxed unfairly compared to other alcohol products. A policy of minimum pricing targets price increases at drinks that are sold cheaply relative to their alcohol content, and cheaper alcoholic drinks tend to be bought more by harmful and hazardous drinkers than moderate drinkers. Studies show that such drinks are also attractive to young people.

The Grant Offer Letters for the 2009-10 financial year that were issued to the Scottish Science Centres on 1 May again include an element of funding to support transport costs of visitors to the centres from remote, economically and/or socially disadvantaged communities. As in the 2008-09 financial year, each centre is set a target number of visitors whose transport costs it is required to support with this funding, this being a proportion of its total annual visitor target. And it is again left to each centre to determine how and where to allocate the transport funding. Recipients of the funding may include school visitors and/or other community groups.

The following information has been obtained from the Scottish Police Service in respect of on-sales test purchases during 2008, alcohol being sold for:

(a) the first time - seven occasions

(b) the second time “ nil.

The following provides a breakdown of the number of on-sales premises tested per force, the number of failures and the outcome. Please note that there were no suspensions.

	No. of Visits	No. of First Failures.	Outcome
Central Scotland Police	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0
Fife Constabulary	24	4	1.   Licensing Board and PF warning letters. 2.   Licensing Board warning letter. PF took no proceedings. 3.   Licensing Board issued warning letter. PF took no proceedings. 4.   Licensing Board issued warning letter. PF issued two fines of £100 each to seller and licensee.
Grampian Police	2	0
Lothian and Borders Police	0	0
Northern Constabulary	0	0
Strathclyde Police	15	3	1.   Licensing Board warning letter. No proceeding by PF. 2.   Licensing Board warning letter. PF fixed penalty refused, thereafter £400 fine. 3.   Licensing Board warning letter. No proceeding by PF.
Tayside Police	0	0
Totals	41	7

 

Please note that all alcohol test purchasing is intelligence-led and these visits to on- sales were the direct result of intelligence received.

The following information has been obtained from the Scottish Police Service in respect of on-sales test purchases during 2008:

Police Force	No of Visits
Central Scotland Police	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Fife Constabulary	24
Grampian Police	2
Lothian and Borders Police	0
Northern Constabulary	0
Strathclyde Police	15
Tayside Police	0
Total	41

 

Please note that all alcohol test purchasing is intelligence-led and these visits to on- sales were the direct result of intelligence received.

The available information is contained in the following table, which shows the number of individual people who were proceeded against in Scottish courts, together with how many of these had not been proceeded against in previous years.

The source of this information is the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database, which is derived from data held on the Criminal History System. Prosecution in court is only one of a range of possible options for dealing with an individual who has been charged with an offence. Other actions include the use of fiscal warnings, diversion to social work, fixed penalty notices and fiscal fines. However, these alternatives to court prosecution are not currently held on the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database and are not included in the following data provided.

Individuals Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts, 1998-99 to 2007-08

Year	Total Individuals Proceeded Against	Individuals not Proceeded Against in any Previous Years1	Percentage of Individuals not Proceeded Against in any Previous Years
1998-99	65,670	20,913	32%
1999-2000	59,710	18,788	31%
2000-01	61,033	20,995	34%
2001-02	78,922	32,657	41%
2002-03	89,119	39,692	45%
2003-04	96,899	43,612	45%
2004-05	98,598	42,698	43%
2005-06	98,372	41,486	42%
2006-07	102,796	42,465	41%
2007-08	102,989	41,511	40%

Note: 1. Individuals not proceeded against in any of the previous years back to 1 April 1969. The Criminal History System is not designed for statistical purposes. Individuals are identified by their offender reference number; note that the ability to record and maintain unique reference numbers over time has increased over the last 10 years.

The Scottish Government provides a wide range of support to manufacturing companies “ including in the engineering sector “ directly and through Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Development International, local authorities and Skills Development Scotland. This includes innovation and investment grants and practical advice by the recently augmented Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service.

Special projects for engineering include the Advanced Forming Research Centre, Intermediary Technology Institutes projects and Enterprise Fellowships for the engineering sector. Scottish Enterprise is working closely with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Scottish Environmental Technology Network to develop a strategy for the development of opportunities for Scotland to benefit from the demand for new technology and engineering solutions to the issues around climate change and environmental protection.

Whilst responsibility for border control and immigration matters (including the  e-Borders programme) are reserved to the UK Government we have sought to be kept informed on the development of the programme at both official and ministerial level. I met senior officials from UKBA on a visit to Edinburgh Airport on 6 April 2009 and the e-Borders programme was discussed along with a range of issues.

In light of consultation responses to our proposal to raise the minimum legal purchase age for off-sales to 21, and the difficulties of carrying such a measure through Parliament, the Scottish Government has decided not to pursue a blanket approach across Scotland. Our revised approach will provide local flexibility by encouraging and facilitating licensing boards to develop local solutions to local problems. This is consistent with the general approach of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 which already allows for conditions to be tailored to particular premises or particular types of premises.

Should a decision by one licensing board to raise the minimum purchase age for off-sales purchases to 21 result in displacement of a problem to neighbouring boards, those boards will have the opportunity to review their own policies as they see appropriate. Chief constables and the local licensing forum will also have powers to request their local licensing board to consider increasing the minimum purchase age for off-sales at any time.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22953 on 7 May 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.