Hansard

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I congratulate Kenneth Gibson on securing this important debate, and on his excellent and detailed opening speech. The debate gives all of us, across the chamber, the opportunity to discuss both the progress that has been made in protecting our young people from exposure to marketing of health-harming products, and the further steps that must be taken as we move forward. I thank Alcohol Focus Scotland, ASH Scotland and Obesity Action Scotland, which provided members with a joint briefing ahead of the debate.

As I am a former nurse and the current deputy convener of the Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, promoting better health for the people of Scotland is of great personal and professional interest and importance to me. Every person who loses their life, or who has an adverse health experience, due to inequality or to overexposure to substances that are known to have harmful impacts on health is one too many.

Research from the World Health Organization, Action on Obesity, the British Heart Foundation and others has conclusively shown that the more that young people are exposed to harmful health substances including alcohol, tobacco and even energy drinks, the more likely they are—in later life as well as in their younger years—to use such products and, consequently, to develop a range of health conditions that might have profound effects on their health and day-to-day lives. That leads to our healthcare services incurring significant costs, which should emphasise the need for us to take pre-emptive action to address the issue.

I am proud that Scotland is already leading the way in the UK on promoting better health for our people. Policies that were introduced by the current and previous Scottish Governments include banning tobacco advertising in 2002; banning smoking in enclosed public spaces in 2006; raising the age for being able to buy tobacco from 16 to 18 in 2007; making prisons smoke-free in 2018; introducing rules on the supply and sale of vapour products in 2017; and introducing the Alcohol etc (Scotland) Act 2010, which placed a legal ban on offering multibuy discounts such as three for two offers and 25 per cent discounts for buying six. The Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012, which Kenneth Gibson mentioned, has paved the way for the introduction of revised pricing that is already benefiting Scotland’s people.

Presiding Officer, that is a braw list, indeed. All those policies have the aim of stopping children’s and young people’s overexposure to alcohol and other harmful substances. However, we still have progress to make. Despite all the welcome steps that I have just outlined, alcohol and high-fat food brands, in particular, are still highly visible in our everyday lives. Whether we see them through adverts on TV, at the cinema, on billboards or online, in magazines and newspapers, at shops, pubs or through sponsorship of music events, it is hard for us to avoid them, and they do not discriminate in terms of the gender or age of the people who see them.

Every year, the alcohol and fatty-food and sugary-food industries spend hundreds of millions of pounds on marketing their products. Companies that promote alcohol and unhealthy food might claim to advertise only to adults, but we know that the existing advertising codes are not adequate to protect our children properly.

In the absence of the ability to change broadcasting laws, I encourage the Scottish Government—I am sure that it is doing this—to consider seriously the asks and recommendations from Alcohol Focus Scotland. Some of the key asks that I think merit further exploration include

“Prohibition of outdoor alcohol advertising and advertising in public spaces ... Alcohol advertising restricted to factual information in adult press”

and

“Cinema alcohol advertising only for 18 certificate films”.

I ask the minister to continue to do all that she can to put pressure on the UK Government to bring about a reform of advertising regulations in order to protect our children, young people and vulnerable adults better from harmful substances.

I welcome the debate and again thank Kenneth Gibson for lodging his motion. I look forward to hearing the minister’s response.