We are saddened and concerned to learn that 1152 people died from an alcohol-specific death in 2025. This is a 3% decrease than the year before but 4.8% as high in most deprived areas. This loss of life is tragic and unnecessary, and we send our deepest condolences to the families and friends who have lost their loved ones.

Unfortunately, the true extent of deaths caused by alcohol is likely to be higher than this figure portrays. These figures do not cover death as a result of road accidents, falls, fires, suicide or violence involving people who had been drinking, nor some types of cancer that alcohol may have contributed to. This cannot go on.

We welcome the decision to combine alcohol and drugs under one strategy in Preventing Harm, Promoting Recovery.

This new strategy makes some promising commitments, including to build upon Minimum Unit Pricing and implement new marketing restrictions. It is no secret that Scotland has a challenging relationship with alcohol; as a country we consume high levels of alcohol and we subsequently face high levels of alcohol harm. Whole population approaches of course, have a place. But for those most at risk of alcohol-related harm, who consume alcohol problematically as a result of trauma and other disadvantages and continue to die as a result, MUP does not go far enough. This is why we’re also glad to see commitments to new standards for alcohol treatment, the expansion of Alcohol Brief Interventions and new Alcohol Care Teams in hospitals

Turning Point Scotland has recognised this need and has worked to roll out alcohol harm reduction packs across our alcohol and other drug services. We have seen first hand the value of harm reduction in those using alcohol problematically, and we therefore call upon the Government to act on this now.

We cannot ignore the fact that the majority of those who die from an alcohol-specific death also live in the most deprived areas of Scotland, despite high levels of alcohol consumption amongst those in more affluent areas. There is no doubt that larger structural forces are at play creating extreme health inequalities. This is not an isolated issue. The Scottish Government needs to work harder to address systemic issues of poverty, trauma, and stigma, otherwise we will continue to lose friends and family to preventable deaths of disadvantage.