Alcohol related societal and economic costs, deaths and hospital admissions: FOI release
- Published
- 20 January 2025
- Directorate
- Primary Care Directorate
- FOI reference
- FOI/202400441124
- Date received
- 15 November 2024
- Date responded
- 16 December 2024
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
Number of alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions for the past 10 years, with a breakdown of the number per year since 2014.
Also can you please provide the cost to the NHS/public sector for the alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions as well as the value of the alcohol sector within the specific years in relation to the Scottish Economy.
Response
I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. The number of alcohol related deaths is available from National Records of Scotland (NRS) although this is an older definition, which is no longer used as the headline measure in Scotland. A link to the NRS archive section for alcohol-related deaths is here.
The measure in use in Scotland is alcohol-specific deaths. The numbers of alcohol-specific deaths for the years you are requesting are published by NRS can be found here (see attachment below) along with a methodology note explaining the difference between the two measures. The number of alcohol related hospital admissions for the years you are requesting are published by Public Health Scotland can be found here.
The Social Market Foundation (2023), based on research carried out by the York Health Economics Consortium (2010) and the University of Aberdeen (2012), estimated that alcohol-related societal and economic costs in Scotland in 2021-22, could amount to between approximately £5-10 billion annually.
That research also estimates that the health and social care related societal costs arising from alcohol in Scotland could be between £500m and £700m annually.
Regarding the value of the alcohol sector, the broader definition of the alcohol industry[1] is the combination of alcohol manufacturing, the wholesale of alcohol, retail sale of alcohol and the sale of alcohol in beverage service establishments. However, due to the nature of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes covering a wider definition than just alcohol e.g. ‘SIC 47.11 Retail sale in non-specialised stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating’, it is difficult to estimate the GVA for the alcohol sector as a whole.
Using the Scottish Annual Business Statistics[2], the total GVA for the manufacture of alcohol below was calculated by deducting SIC 11.07 (Manufacture of soft drinks; production of mineral waters and other bottled waters) from SIC 11 totals (Manufacture of Beverages). These figures just relate to manufacturing the product. There will be additional GVA generated by transportation, wholesale and retail etc.
The table provides the total GVA for the manufacture of alcoholic beverages from 2008 until 2022. Please note this data is in current prices (i.e. not adjusted for inflation) and that new 2023 (and revised 2022) Scottish Annual Business Statistics will not be available until around Summer 2025.
Year |
Gross Value Added at Basic Prices (in £ millions) |
2008 |
2,300 |
2009 |
2,412 |
2010 |
2,323 |
2011 |
2,376 |
2012 |
2,122 |
2013 |
2,000 |
2014 |
1,993 |
2015 |
1,881 |
2016 |
2,010 |
2017 |
2,085 |
2018 |
2,318 |
2019 |
2,290 |
2020 |
1,947 |
2021 |
2,273 |
2022 |
2,651 |
This can be considered alongside a previous FOI request[3] based on GERS 2023-24 in which it was questioned how much did alcoholic beverages – spirits, wine and cider contribute to Scotland’s GDP. In this the manufacture of alcoholic beverages is quoted to contribute £2.75 billion to Scotland's onshore GVA in 2023-24. The FOI also highlights analysis carried out by the Scotch Whisky Association[4].
- Alcohol - minimum unit pricing - gov.scot
- Scottish Annual Business Statistics - gov.scot
- Final Response-202400427032 details - Objective or Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) alcoholic beverages contribution: FOI release - gov.scot
- Scotch Whisky Economic Impact report 2024 | Scotch Whisky Association
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
- File type
- Excel document
- File size
- 374.3 kB
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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