The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS OF CONSULTATION RESPONDENTS

Introduction

2.1 The Scottish Government received a total of 472 written responses to the discussion paper: Changing Scotland's relationship with alcohol: a discussion paper on our strategic approach.This included 259 responses from individuals and 207 responses from organisations and six combined or group responses from:

• two MSPs who submitted the results of consultations they had carried out with local constituents;
• the Scottish Prison Service who provided the views of consultations carried out with prisoners and prison service staff; and,
• East Renfrewshire Council and Dundee Drug and Alcohol Action Teams who submitted summaries of the views of young people in their area.

2.2 Organisational and individual responses, where the respondent agreed that their submission could be made available, were published on the Scottish Government's website within 20 working days of the end of the consultation period. ¹⁰

2.3 Scottish Government Ministers also received 53 letters or emails about issues relating to the discussion paper from members of the public whilst the consultation was on-going. Although these were not official responses to the discussion paper they provided views on at least some aspect of the discussion paper and the Scottish Government therefore asked for these responses to be analysed and reported upon in this report (see Chapter 3).

2.4 In addition, the Scottish Government organised a Summit on Underage Drinking and commissioned Young Scot to undertake a survey of young people and focus groups. The findings from the Summit and the Young Scot survey and focus groups have been included in this report (see Chapter 5 and Appendix 3). Several organisations also carried out their own surveys or reported on previous surveys when responding to the Scottish Government's consultation and these have been summarised in Chapter 5.

Individual Respondents

2.5 A total of 259 individuals responded to the discussion paper. Although respondents were not asked to provide information about their gender, it was possible to use respondents' names to ascertain that 166 respondents (64%) were male and 79 (30%) were female. Fourteen respondents (5%) did not provide their first name or have non-gender specific names.

2.6 Analysis of the addresses provided by individual respondents shows that responses came from 30 out of 32 local authority areas. Thirty seven respondents (14%) are resident in Edinburgh and 34 (13%) in Glasgow. Fife (22), Aberdeenshire (16), South Lanarkshire (12) and the Highlands (12) were the only other local authority areas with 10 or more respondents. Six responses came from England and one from the USA.

Organisational Respondents

2.7 A total of 207 organisations submitted a response to the discussion paper. Table 1 provides a breakdown of all responses.

Table 1: Breakdown of all Responses and Typology of Responses

2.8 All organisational responses have been considered and given equal weighting in the quantitative analysis. However, respondents from three sectors which have a key interest in / role to play in the proposed alcohol misuse strategy - health and addictions organisations, alcohol trade and business organisations and Local Government and Community Planning Partnerships ( CPPs) - have been grouped together in order to provide comparative analysis from these sectors.

2.9 Health and addictions organisations formed the largest group of respondents - 62 in total. This included:

• nineteen Alcohol and Drug Action Teams ( ADATs) or Forums and the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams ( SAADAT);
• ten addiction groups, including national organisations such as Alcohol Focus Scotland and local groups such as Tayside Council on Alcohol;
• twelve NHS bodies - including eight of the 14 territorial NHS Boards, two specialist local services, NHS Health Scotland and the Psychology Directorate of NHS Education for Scotland;
• eleven professional health bodies, including the British Medical Association ( BMA), seven Royal Colleges and Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems ( SHAAP); and,
• nine other health / healthy lifestyle organisations ( e.g. Scottish Cancer Group).

2.10 Business and trade organisations including retailers and producers of alcohol was the next largest group with a total of 58 respondents. This included:

• seventeen small retail stores;
• thirteen producers (including several distillers, multiple brand producers such as Diageo and Chivas Regal - Pernod Ricard UK and brewers such as Scottish & Newcastle UK and SAB Miller Plc) and two producers' associations (the Portman Group and the National Association of Cider Makers);
• nine large retail stores and chains (such as ASDA and Tesco), one on-sale retailer (Punch Taverns) and six retail associations representing both on and off-sales retailers (including the Scottish Licensed Trade Association and the Scottish Grocers' Federation); and,
• ten other trade organisations that do not fall into the categories above or represent both retailers and producers ( e.g. the Federation of Small Businesses, the Drinkaware Trust and the Scottish Beer and Pub Association).

2.11 The third large sector represented amongst respondents was Local Government and Community Planning Partnerships. The 41 organisations in this grouping included:

• thirteen of the 32 Scottish local authorities and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities ( COSLA);
• ten Licensing Boards and six Licensing Forums;
• three Community Planning Partnerships and one Police Force;
• four Professional Associations (the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Directors of Social Work, the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland and Home Safety Scotland, which represents home safety officers, community safety officers and health promotion officers); and,
• three Community Councils.

2.12 Forty six organisations that do not fall into the three sectors outlined above responded to the consultation. These included:

• sixteen national and local voluntary / third sector organisations, including five children's organisations or charities;
• nine youth organisations, including the Coalition Against Raising the Drinking Age in Scotland ( CARDAS) ¹¹, which takes in several youth organisations that responded in their own right;
• four National Forums - the Scottish Drugs Forum, Scottish Community Safety Network, Scottish Child Safety Alliance and the Homelessness and Substance Misuse Advisory Group;
• four academic institutions;
• two television companies and two advertisers' associations;
• three national agencies - Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Scottish Children's Report Administration and Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People; and,
• six 'other' organisations that do not fall into any of the other categories used (including Ofcom and the Law Society of Scotland).

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