Scottish Government

On the basis of evidence gathered, the review concluded that AFS is providing good value for money. The report finds that the organisation is now more directly focused on achieving outcomes, and that these outcomes align with the Scottish Government’s own national outcomes. Major improvements are evident in relation to strategic planning, HR, finance and quality assurance activities since the appointment of a new Chief Executive in 2010.

The report notes that the complexity of the alcohol message as compared with, for example, the smoking message, is an important reason for the Scottish Government to continue to invest funding in AFS. It concludes that AFS plays an important role not only in gathering evidence, but in translating the complexity of that evidence into straight-forward messages for policy / decision-makers.