Alcohol Focus Scotland funding: FOI release

With regard to the third question of your request to “confirm whether a condition of funding approval at any time since 2018 is that the organisation must publicly (or otherwise) support the policy of minimum unit pricing and where that is the case, provide the specific wording of the condition(s),” I can confirm that no conditions were placed on the organisations by the Scottish Government that required them to support MUP or advocate for MUP to receive grant funding. Instead, the outcomes set out in the grant letter in all instances were proposed by the relevant organisations as part of their business plan and agreed by the Scottish Government.

It should be noted that the grant funding agreements and grant values provided include a much wider range of objectives and programme activities than are listed below, and that the excerpts from grant funding letters below relate only to the information that is within scope of Q3 of your request

Financial Year 2019/2019 - 5 June 2018 – OFFER OF GRANT FOR ALCOHOL FOCUS SCOTLAND
With reference to AFS’s Business Plan April 2018 – March 2021, the targets/milestones against which progress in achieving objectives/expected outcomes shall be monitored in year 1 (2018/19) are:
Increase price
Operational Outcome 1: Increased awareness and understanding amongst the general public and key stakeholders of the links between price, consumption and harm.
This outcome will be achieved through:

• Ongoing media advocacy to ensure high public profile of MUP, including promoting its benefits, challenging industry criticisms, publicising emerging evidence of impact, and raising public awareness of and support for MUP
• Support the Scottish Government in developing and disseminating information on MUP implementation through our networks
• Assess training needs of Licensing Standards Officers and provide support to LSOs, licensing boards and Police Scotland to enforce MUP
• Organise an event for key stakeholders to increase understanding of MUP implementation

Financial Year 2019/2020 - 23 May 2019 – OFFER OF GRANT FOR ALCOHOL FOCUS SCOTLAND
With reference to AFS’s Business Plan Update April 2019 – March 2020, the targets/milestones against which progress in achieving objectives/expected outcomes shall be monitored in year 2 (2019/20) are:
Increase price
Operational Outcome 1: Increased awareness and understanding amongst the general public and key stakeholders of the links between price, consumption and harm.
This outcome will be achieved through:

• Ongoing media advocacy to ensure high public profile of MUP, including promoting its benefits, challenging industry criticisms, publicising emerging evidence of impact, and raising public awareness of and support for MUP
• Provide relevant input to the monitoring and evaluation of MUP

Financial Year 2020/2021 - 5 May 2020 – OFFER OF GRANT FOR ALCOHOL FOCUS SCOTLAND
With reference to AFS’s Business Plan April 2018 – March 2021, the targets/milestones against which progress in achieving objectives/expected outcomes shall be monitored in year 3 (2020/21) are:
Increase price
Operational Outcome 1: Increased awareness and understanding amongst the general public and key stakeholders of the links between price, consumption and harm.
This outcome will be achieved through:

• Ongoing media advocacy to ensure high public profile of MUP, including challenging industry
• criticisms, and raising public awareness of and support for MUP
• Provide relevant input to the monitoring and evaluation of MUP

Financial Year 2021/2022 - 19 May 2021 – OFFER OF GRANT FUNDING FOR ALCOHOL FOCUS SCOTLAND
With reference to AFS’s Business Plan April 2021 - March 2024 (dated February 2021), the targets/milestones against which progress in achieving objectives/expected outcomes shall be monitored in year 1 of the 3-year grant funding cycle (2021/22) are:
Increase price
Advocate for the continuation and optimisation of MUP in Scotland
Year 1
This outcome will be achieved through:

• Ongoing media advocacy to ensure high public profile of MUP, including promoting its benefits,challenging industry criticisms, publicising emerging evidence of impact, and raising public awareness of and support for MUP
• Continue to advocate and build support for the uprating of MUP

Financial Year 2022/2023 – 8 June 2022 – OFFER OF GRANT FUNDING FOR ALCOHOL FOCUS SCOTLAND
The targets/milestones against which progress in achieving objectives/expected outcomes shall be monitored are:
Increase price
Advocate for the continuation and optimisation of MUP in Scotland
Year 2
This outcome will be achieved through:

• Ongoing media advocacy to ensure high public profile of MUP, including promoting its benefits, industry criticisms, publicising emerging evidence of impact, and raising public awareness of and support for MUP
• Continue to advocate and build support for the uprating of MUP
• Develop and implement plan for advocacy for the continuation of MUP beyond April 2024

Financial Year 2023/2024 – 21 June 2023 – OFFER OF GRANT FUNDING FOR ALCOHOL FOCUS SCOTLAND
The targets/milestones against which progress in achieving objectives/expected outcomes shall be monitored are:
Increase price
Advocate for the continuation and optimisation of MUP in Scotland
Year 3
This outcome will be achieved through:

• Ongoing media advocacy to ensure high public profile of MUP, including promoting its benefits, challenging industry criticisms, publicising emerging evidence of impact, and raising public awareness of and support for MUP
• Continue to advocate and build support for the uprating of MUP