Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2026 [Draft]
I agree with the chief medical officer and with Gillian Mackay in her assessment of the need to ensure that we move to a more preventative upstream approach. That is exactly what we have set out in the population health framework and the service renewal framework to ensure that we have a sustainable and needs-based health and social care system.
The Government’s work to continue and increase the minimum unit price of alcohol is an example of our approach to taking concrete action to reduce alcohol harms. Work is under way to consider the range of options for any future uprating of minimum unit pricing. We are also considering Public Health Scotland’s recent evidence review of restricting alcohol marketing, although no decisions have been made. Our tobacco and vaping framework sets out the actions that we are taking to make Scotland tobacco-free by 2034 and to reduce vaping among non-smokers and young adults. The legislation that I referred to in my earlier answer to restrict the promotion of less healthy food and drink from October 2026 delivers one of the first actions under the population health framework.