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I am satisfied that an effective process is in place. I hope that we do not reach the point of triggering it. For all that the impression that is given is that we are regularly in conflict with one another in the four nations, we actually work together closely on a number of issues across the board in health, and we have strong working relationships, particularly in my portfolio. Therefore, I expect us to be able to avoid triggering that conflict resolution process.

I will bring in Jennifer Howie to talk a little bit more about the detail of how the process will work should it be triggered.

Although the act was passed in 2020, it is still bedding in. We are still trying to understand the impact of that piece of legislation on our public health decisions, and I cannot at the moment think of an area in which we would be looking for exclusions.

The framework allows for divergence and respects the devolution settlements. For public health reasons, and all reasons, we prefer that mechanism for resolving issues of divergence.

I am not aware of anything that has been done regarding television advertising. Perhaps Amy Kirkpatrick can tell us what is happening on a four-nations basis.

The study that you have quoted shows that people are buying more expensive alcohol. Other studies show that, at a population level, we are consuming less alcohol—the lowest level of alcohol consumed by people in Scotland for 26 years. Per head of population, we are consuming only 18 units of alcohol a week. That is still in excess of the recommended 14 units and it does not quite explain the whole picture because, within that, there are some people who are abstinent or drink very little, and there are others who drink heavily. However, at a population level, both points are true: we have reduced the amount of alcohol that we drink; and the alcohol they we are buying to drink is costing us more. However, that second point is in line with what the WHO said that we had to do in order to tackle alcohol harm, which was to make alcohol less affordable.

We are in a position where councillors can say no. They have considerable discretion to determine appropriate licensing arrangements according to their local priorities and circumstances and their legal advice. I do not think that it is appropriate for the Scottish Government to intervene in those matters, and certainly not in individual cases.

As I have said repeatedly, tell me if there is something that you think that I need to do at Scottish Government level to strengthen councils’ hand. However, we have seen—and our experience has certainly been—that, because the alcohol industry is very well funded and global, it is quite likely to use the law to challenge anything that impacts on its business. That is the reality. Local authorities have a responsibility to balance the needs of all the people living in their local area and to come to the decisions that are best for them. They, not central Government, are best placed to do that.

As I said, I am more than willing to hear from councils, stakeholders and politicians from any party if they think that there are things that we could do to support local authorities. As you know, much of the licensing is in the hands of our local authorities, in many respects, so that they can make decisions that are appropriate for their own communities, which is absolutely the right thing to do. If there are any suggestions for what we could do to strengthen councils’ ability to make decisions, I am more than happy to consider them.

You are absolutely right to think of it in that way. The World Health Organization talks about the three best buys being availability, affordability and attractiveness, and those wine, cider, gin or whisky clubs—there are many different versions of the same thing—target availability and attractiveness, and there is a great deal of marketing for them. Alcohol is delivered to your home every month, six weeks or whatever the frequency is without any effort, which encourages more drinking. We definitely need to think about things such as that.

As I said, we will not shift our relationship with alcohol overnight by pulling one lever. Things will come along that change our habits. The pandemic completely changed almost everyone’s behaviour overnight, and we do not know whether those changes will stick. I do not recall anyone being a member of a wine club when I was growing up, but it is not uncommon to have online tastings and things like that now. The world has changed and we need to keep considering how our behaviour has changed and ensuring that the measures that we are using keep us in the healthy zone. We are not aiming for abstinence or zero alcohol in Scotland; we are aiming for healthy drinking and a healthy relationship with alcohol, and we need to keep an eye on how our behaviour changes.

I can. I agree that it is not easy to track the spending—the Government acknowledges that, and we are keen to improve the situation. I think that Angela Constance has responded in the chamber to an audit report on that matter. We want people to understand where the money is going and what outcomes we expect to achieve and are achieving from it.

The Scottish Government gives health boards £53.8 million a year in baseline funding, which the boards pass on to alcohol and drug partnerships. That supports alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services at local level. As well as that, in 2020-21, the Scottish Government allocated an additional £17 million to alcohol and drug partnerships, which continued the commitment that was made in the 2017-18 programme for government to improve the provision and quality of services for those with problem drug and alcohol use.

We are also undertaking a range of work specifically to improve alcohol treatment services across Scotland, including the development of a public health surveillance system and the implementation of UK-wide clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment. We have also invested in the Simon Community Scotland, which I mentioned. It has established a small-scale managed alcohol programme in Glasgow, and we are providing funding of £212,000 over three years for the pilot and evaluation.

The Scottish Government also provides funding to a number of third sector stakeholders—Alcohol Focus Scotland, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems and the Scottish Alcohol Counselling Consortium—to develop their vital work.

The final thing to mention is the national drugs mission. The two issues are not separate. Services on the ground are usually delivered by alcohol and drug partnerships, and people go to the same services. In this session of Parliament, £250 million is being invested through the national drugs mission, £100 million of which is going directly to residential rehab services. The data for the past year shows that 45 per cent of the people who accessed residential rehab had alcohol problems, and about 20 per cent had combined drug and alcohol problems. Therefore, that investment benefits this population, too.

In essence, there are different tiers of intervention. We expect much to be resolved at the official level, as it currently is. We expect that to continue and ministers to be able to be pulled in to work together to resolve issues, should that be needed. However, I do not expect that to happen frequently.

I do not think that the consultation has been published yet; certainly, it was not published by half past 4 on Friday. I have seen the media reports around it, but I think that we ran into the holiday weekend before it could get published in full. We will be poring over that information, and we are very interested in the approach that is proposed by the bill.

We know that there is a mixture of views in society, from stakeholders and from people with lived experience. I am keen to see how the consultation, which I expect to reflect those diverse views, evolves into a bill. We will be more than happy to consider the contents of the bill when it is introduced and consider whether it is something that we can support for Scotland. As I understand it, we are already working on much of what the bill aims to do. We are keen that people have a right to recovery and we are keen that they are able to make an informed decision about what treatment they have.

The way that you framed your question gave the impression that the Conservatives’ right to recovery bill is largely about residential rehab. I am very clear: people need to have access to a range of treatments, rather than to one. The goals of abstinence or of harm minimisation should be decided along with the person who is experiencing drug misuse. I would not say that there is only one path or goal in recovery. It is usually a long and winding path and a suite of options must be available to support people as they recover from addiction.