One hundred days on

When the SNP took office in 2007, we were determined to hit the ground running and start work on an impressive array of tasks within our first 100 days in Government. Work was begun on abolishing the Graduate Endowment, recruiting 1,000 additional police officers and saving A&E departments from closure amongst many other things. With the first 100 days now having come and gone since we were re-elected as a majority Government in May this year, our intentions have been no different and we have again sought to use these early days of the new parliament to build momentum for the months and years ahead.

We have launched a Renewables Routemap outlining the steps Scotland needs to take to capitalise on the vast potential renewable energy offers us and meet the ambitious target we have set of generating an equivalent of 100% of Scotland’s electricity demand from renewable sources by 2020.

We have published a plan to increase the number of Scots diagnosed in the earliest stages of cancer by 25% to improve cancer survival rates and spare more people the agony of losing a loved one to the illness. And we have started a fresh approach to involving the fishing industry more in the decisions that affect it through the launch of the Fisheries Management and Conservation Group and the Scottish Seafood Partnership.

We have done these things and numerous others in our first 100 days and we will do many, many more in the days still to come. No Government can even come close to achieving all it sets out to do in its first 100 days and nor should it. But those early days do set the tone for what is to follow. In both this new term and the 100 days that marked the start of our previous term in Government, I firmly believe that we have begun our term with energy and direction and established a solid base for our work in the months and years ahead.

Minimum pricing

Scotland’s damaging relationship with alcohol is not new to anyone or something that can be solved overnight. The impact of excessive alcohol consumption costs people in Scotland £3.56 billion every single year and places an incredible strain on our health and justice systems in these difficult economic times. Yet what is new is just how much the scale of the problem is increasing.

New figures show that people in Scotland buy 23% more alcohol than people in England and Wales, the biggest difference ever recorded in the 17 years since the figures were first measured. This works out as an additional 2.2 litres of pure alcohol per adult in Scotland sold than in England last year, at 11.8 litres compared to 9.6. It can be little coincidence that last year also saw a 3% increase in alcohol related deaths. In the last session of parliament, we sought to bring in a range of measures to address this growing problem and the costs that come with it through the Alcohol (Scotland) Act.

While this Act was passed by parliament, important measures such as a minimum price per unit for alcohol were stripped out by opposition parties. Minimum pricing is by no means a silver bullet, but studies have shown it can help to reduce alcohol consumption and that is something that is urgently needed in Scotland.

That is why the Scottish Government intends to introduce a Minimum Pricing Bill as a matter of priority this Autumn and correct the mistake that was made when opposition parties stripped it from last session’s Bill.