:00:15. > :00:20.Tonight on Newsnight Scotland, we have the accident report into the
:00:21. > :00:24.helicopter that crashed in to the Clutha Bar. But does it raise more
:00:25. > :00:29.questions than it answers? And alcohol kills 20 people a week
:00:30. > :00:33.in Scotland. With the minimum pricing laws still mired in legal
:00:34. > :00:38.action, what can be done to moderate our enthusiasm for drink?
:00:39. > :00:45.Good evening. The supermarket shelves are stacked with bottles and
:00:46. > :00:48.pubs and clubs are busy as the Christmas party season gets under
:00:49. > :00:52.way. For many in Scotland, though, a sociable drink at Christmas, or any
:00:53. > :00:55.time of year, is not enough. NHS Health Scotland told us today that
:00:56. > :00:58.booze still kills 20 people a week on average and called for more
:00:59. > :01:01.action to cut alcohol-related deaths and the illness it causes,
:01:02. > :01:04.particularly in women. The Scottish government agree, but their plans
:01:05. > :01:09.for minimum unit pricing are still mired in legal argument. Here's
:01:10. > :01:15.Andrew Kerr. Alcohol, booze, or even bevvy,
:01:16. > :01:18.whatever your name, we certainly enjoy it in Scotland. There's
:01:19. > :01:22.nothing wrong with a drink of the Scottish government tell us, we're
:01:23. > :01:33.not anti-alcohol just anti alcohol misuse. Karen's nine litres of side
:01:34. > :01:37.a day caused major health problems. I went to buy one bottle of cider, I
:01:38. > :01:50.would get three bottles, which is three litres. So it is nine litres
:01:51. > :01:55.of cider three times -- a day. As soon as they ran out, somebody else
:01:56. > :01:59.would come through the door, it would be another two or possibly
:02:00. > :02:03.three, then I'd go to sleep, wake up, and if there was none left, I'd
:02:04. > :02:09.go to the shop and get another three. Karen's liver was badly
:02:10. > :02:14.damaged. That is one of the myriad of health problems booze can bring.
:02:15. > :02:20.There is a clear alcohol strategy in place to tackle that. To change our
:02:21. > :02:23.destructive relationship with drink. NHS health Scotland have reported on
:02:24. > :02:27.progress today and they welcome the fall in alcohol-related deaths but
:02:28. > :02:32.warned that the equivalent of 20 people a week dying of drink is too
:02:33. > :02:42.many. The health of younger women is of particular concern. Women aged 25
:02:43. > :02:48.to 44, we have seen alcohol-related discharges go up a lot. That is on
:02:49. > :02:53.ongoing cause of concern. With alcohol sales almost 20% higher here
:02:54. > :02:58.than in England and Wales, there is clear evidence of a different
:02:59. > :03:02.drinking cult church, a more harmful one. We drink more and we have a
:03:03. > :03:10.hype percentage of people drinking the most harmful drink 's, which is
:03:11. > :03:17.the cheap gyms and so we need to change drinking habits. We need to
:03:18. > :03:23.drink less. Also, will need to stop drinking the harmful drinks and
:03:24. > :03:30.drink in moderation. We need to drink in moderation. As medics and
:03:31. > :03:35.government tried to nudge us towards a more responsible drinking, one
:03:36. > :03:42.solution is swirling around. We think affordability is an important
:03:43. > :03:47.element of the explanation of why harm's has been high and why it has
:03:48. > :03:52.been falling in recent years. The recession has reduced affordability
:03:53. > :03:57.and part of it is price. We think action is required to keep tackling
:03:58. > :04:01.affordability of alcohol. Action is required, cue the Scottish
:04:02. > :04:08.government ministers nodding in agreement. 60% of booze sold out of
:04:09. > :04:12.pubs was below 50p per unit. Remember that? The initial level
:04:13. > :04:18.proposed by the government for minimum unit pricing. That policy is
:04:19. > :04:21.languishing in the courts. They call for other measures to be looked at
:04:22. > :04:28.but the Health Secretary says that policy would tackle affordability.
:04:29. > :04:33.Minimum unit pricing is so important because of it has the kind of impact
:04:34. > :04:42.we anticipate, many more people will substantially reduce alcohol abuse.
:04:43. > :04:51.A major plank in the strategy to change our behaviour and educate the
:04:52. > :04:54.young, not much to think about if you are having a glass, but
:04:55. > :05:00.something to mull over over Christmas. I'm joined now by Jim
:05:01. > :05:09.McCartney, head of the Public health Observatory.
:05:10. > :05:13.And by Doctor Deborah Shipton. First of all, Jim, what reasons have you
:05:14. > :05:18.identified for the fall in deaths? The most ticks -- the most important
:05:19. > :05:21.explanation is that incomes have been falling or staying still as
:05:22. > :05:26.prices have been rising over the last ten years. As a result, alcohol
:05:27. > :05:31.is less affordable which has restricted the amount of alcohol
:05:32. > :05:37.people are able to buy, therefore people have been resulting in less
:05:38. > :05:41.alcohol-related deaths. There are a couple of other explanations, too.
:05:42. > :05:46.We spent a lot of money improving services, introducing things like
:05:47. > :05:51.interventions, which has had some impact. And the ban on multi-byte
:05:52. > :05:57.discounting, which has lowered alcohol sales by 3%. With the
:05:58. > :06:01.economic downturn going back five years, we saw a spike in the number
:06:02. > :06:07.of deaths further back than that, perhaps when people were better off.
:06:08. > :06:11.Yes, they've been declining since 2003, but most alcohol-related
:06:12. > :06:15.deaths are in the poorest 10th of the nation and if you look at their
:06:16. > :06:21.income, their incomes haven't been rising for a long time before the
:06:22. > :06:25.current recession took place. As a result, the incomes of the poorest
:06:26. > :06:29.group, the ones buying most frequently, they have been
:06:30. > :06:33.stagnating whilst alcohol prices have risen, thus alcohol is less
:06:34. > :06:38.affordable. Yet we see the number of women admitted to hospital with
:06:39. > :06:42.alcohol-related problems on the rise. What is the underlying
:06:43. > :06:48.problem? There is many reasons why women might be drinking more. It is
:06:49. > :06:52.far more acceptable now for women to drink and for them to drink to the
:06:53. > :06:59.excessive levels we see in men, which is related to the trends we
:07:00. > :07:08.see in women nowadays. We heard from Karen, drinking 33 litre bottles at
:07:09. > :07:13.a time, at least she was. Are the drinks that women consume cheaper?
:07:14. > :07:19.It is difficult to know what people are drinking because the data is
:07:20. > :07:23.unreliable. That said, there is general data suggesting that women
:07:24. > :07:30.are drinking higher strength so they are more likely to be drinking the
:07:31. > :07:36.spirit and the higher strength designer drinks, I guess, than men.
:07:37. > :07:40.That is contributing to it. We have had this fall in the death rate even
:07:41. > :07:45.though the minimum unit pricing that has been trumpeted by the government
:07:46. > :07:51.has not been enacted. How big a difference will we see if that is
:07:52. > :07:56.actually enforced? We have got data from North America, in particular
:07:57. > :07:59.Canada which introduced the minimum unit pricing. That resulted in
:08:00. > :08:07.dramatic falls in alcohol-related deaths. If we restrict price, the
:08:08. > :08:11.prices of the cheapest alcohol, it can have a difference. One of the
:08:12. > :08:14.main reasons why alcohol-related deaths might be coming down in
:08:15. > :08:21.Scotland is because incomes have stagnated. If you call me is to turn
:08:22. > :08:25.round and incomes increase, it's possible alcohol-related deaths
:08:26. > :08:31.could go back up again. How real is that fear? The data suggest that the
:08:32. > :08:38.downturn, the large proportion of it, will be related to alcohol
:08:39. > :08:43.becoming less affordable. As it becomes more affordable, as
:08:44. > :08:48.household incomes in proof, it is quite likely that alcohol
:08:49. > :08:52.consumption will go up and harm will go up. If harm is linked to price,
:08:53. > :08:55.does that tell is that many of the health messages we have had over
:08:56. > :09:02.recent years haven't permeated through to the public? A lot of
:09:03. > :09:05.interventions are educating the publisher and around health risks,
:09:06. > :09:12.around the units and recommended levels. They don't really work very
:09:13. > :09:16.much in terms of the adult population or in terms of schools
:09:17. > :09:20.and children. And we also know that when people are drinking alcohol,
:09:21. > :09:25.the decisions they make on the night of how many drinks to have, how to
:09:26. > :09:29.continue are not related to units and not related to how units are
:09:30. > :09:33.related to the recommended levels. It's much more to do with who they
:09:34. > :09:40.are with, the intention they have of the evening. Is littered
:09:41. > :09:43.contradiction with these figures in that at Westminster the government
:09:44. > :09:49.is not in favour of this minimum unit pricing. -- isn't it a
:09:50. > :09:54.contradiction. But the death rates in England are much lower in England
:09:55. > :09:58.than Scotland where we have these measures already? Alcohol-related
:09:59. > :10:05.problems, just like suicide and of islands, all of these factors are
:10:06. > :10:10.determined by other factors in society, whether it is
:10:11. > :10:12.unemployment, poor housing, the deindustrialisation of our cities
:10:13. > :10:18.and regions. All of these factors taken together have to be taken into
:10:19. > :10:20.the context where drugs and alcohol and violence have become normal. It
:10:21. > :10:25.is quite right the Scottish government looks at the health
:10:26. > :10:30.problems of the country and takes appropriate legislation. It's worth
:10:31. > :10:33.remembering that alcohol-related deaths are 70% higher than in
:10:34. > :10:42.England, so it has to be a priority here. It used to be the case in
:10:43. > :10:45.Scotland that we used to have lower alcohol-related deaths than the rest
:10:46. > :10:52.of Europe so this is something new. The statistics give varying picture
:10:53. > :10:56.we have the ban on these multi-buy promotions. We have had some
:10:57. > :11:01.statistics that say that it hasn't reduced consumption that to much.
:11:02. > :11:06.The data is clear. We use sales data, the best proxy to see how much
:11:07. > :11:10.alcohol has been taken by the population. Some other reports are
:11:11. > :11:15.based on how much people have told researchers, and that data is less
:11:16. > :11:21.robust. We are fairly confident there has been a 2.6% reduction in
:11:22. > :11:29.sales since that ban came in, particularly in wine, where we think
:11:30. > :11:35.on -- where we think wine has been sold as a multi-buying discount. We
:11:36. > :11:42.think that has had had a good impact. Small numbers nonetheless.
:11:43. > :11:46.If the minimum unit pricing is implemented, if the legal battle is
:11:47. > :11:53.sorted out, I presume it's still going to take a long time before the
:11:54. > :11:59.ship is turned around? Well, we will see fairly immediate effect in terms
:12:00. > :12:02.of the reduction of consumption and reductions in harm also come quite
:12:03. > :12:06.soon after reductions in consumption, so we will see some
:12:07. > :12:13.immediate effects. And I think we will need to say that we would like
:12:14. > :12:18.to keep attention on price, presumably indefinitely in terms
:12:19. > :12:22.that it is quite appropriate to have attention on control of availability
:12:23. > :12:26.of alcohol. As soon as you take it away, as we've seen in other
:12:27. > :12:29.countries when that is relaxed, consumption goes up. That is
:12:30. > :12:35.something that will have to be continued. As I say, minimum unit
:12:36. > :12:39.pricing is in the courts at the moment, would you like to see other
:12:40. > :12:44.measures from politicians at the moment? It could take months or
:12:45. > :12:49.years to sort out. We are looking at evidence from other countries to see
:12:50. > :12:55.what else might be affected, harms to drinkers themselves, harms to
:12:56. > :12:58.society itself, or the treatment of children. There is evidence that
:12:59. > :13:05.liquidation -- regulation of the best forms of approach to tackling
:13:06. > :13:10.alcohol misuse. And we've seen examples in North America where
:13:11. > :13:14.regulating the sale of alcohol can reduce alcohol intake even without
:13:15. > :13:17.it affecting the price. Thank you very much.
:13:18. > :13:20.It's not much more than a week since the Police Scotland helicopter
:13:21. > :13:22.crashed into the Clutha Bar in Glasgow. The wreckage was taken to
:13:23. > :13:25.the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough for analysis,
:13:26. > :13:29.and today they issued their first report into the crash. They have
:13:30. > :13:32.found no evidence of engine or gearbox failure in the helicopter.
:13:33. > :13:44.Catriona Renton has the details of the report.
:13:45. > :13:50.It is ten days now since witnesses said they saw the police helicopter
:13:51. > :14:01.drop like a stone from the sky. The crew had started work at 8:45pm,
:14:02. > :14:08.flying from Glasgow. At 10:18pm, the pilot requested clearance from air
:14:09. > :14:13.traffic controllers to return to the heliport. This was the last
:14:14. > :14:20.communication with him. Four minutes later, radar contact with the
:14:21. > :14:24.helicopter was lost. Today's report said the helicopter struck the flat
:14:25. > :14:29.roof of the pub with a high rate of descent and low or negligible
:14:30. > :14:33.forward speed. A preliminary examination showed all the main
:14:34. > :14:37.rotor blades were attached at the time of impact but that neither the
:14:38. > :14:42.main nor the tail rotor were rotating. After the initial
:14:43. > :14:47.examination, the helicopter was lifted clear of the building by a
:14:48. > :14:53.crane. 95 litres of fuel were removed from its tanks. In
:14:54. > :14:57.Farmborough, they found no evidence of major mechanical disruption of
:14:58. > :15:03.either engine and that the main rotor gearbox was capable of
:15:04. > :15:08.providing drive. So far, extensive damage has prevented similar checks
:15:09. > :15:16.on the other gearbox. Experts say what has been rolled out leaves more
:15:17. > :15:20.questions than answers. Given what we know from this report, what
:15:21. > :15:26.theory do you think the investigators will be working on? I
:15:27. > :15:43.think it's too early to even guess what theory they may be working
:15:44. > :15:49.towards. This is an interim report. We can't really draw any conclusion
:15:50. > :15:57.from the report at this moment. Does this report rule anything out? I
:15:58. > :16:05.don't think it does. One of the tiny footnotes within this document says
:16:06. > :16:11.that it is a tentative report pointing to where they are at the
:16:12. > :16:19.moment, what they have been looking at, but they say they found no
:16:20. > :16:25.problems with the engines all the gearbox, but it's very much early
:16:26. > :16:29.days because there is still some investigation to go. There's an
:16:30. > :16:34.investigation to go into an awful lot of other things as well. For
:16:35. > :16:41.example, the electronics on board particular helicopter, fitted with
:16:42. > :16:49.the full authority digital electronic control system for the
:16:50. > :16:55.engines. That leaves no ability for the pilots to take manual control if
:16:56. > :17:00.something went wrong, for example. If the system failed, it follows
:17:01. > :17:05.that the rotors would stop turning on the aircraft would come down.
:17:06. > :17:12.They could be looking at many other avenues as well. On the subject of
:17:13. > :17:15.the data that the helicopter itself may provide, I presume there is the
:17:16. > :17:24.danger that some of that data may be lost. That's right. Many of the
:17:25. > :17:34.systems on board modern aircraft of any type have data capture devices
:17:35. > :17:38.built-in, which gives some indication as to Fort conditions and
:17:39. > :17:45.so forth. Now, the investigations will look at those and tried to
:17:46. > :17:49.retrieve whatever they can retrieve and download whatever data happens
:17:50. > :17:55.to be there, provided that those parts are not so badly damaged that
:17:56. > :17:59.the chips themselves are damaged. So there is about. There is also the
:18:00. > :18:09.possibility that many of the police systems on board this helicopter,
:18:10. > :18:13.such as CCTV cameras, voice recordings of conversations between
:18:14. > :18:16.the helicopter and police control of the helicopter and air traffic
:18:17. > :18:23.control, might provide some answers as well. It's interesting they
:18:24. > :18:27.talked of no evidence of major mechanical disruption. Is it
:18:28. > :18:34.possible a very small Fort could cause such a failure? It is
:18:35. > :18:39.possible. At the end of the day, we are talking about a very complex
:18:40. > :18:48.aircraft and one that is reliant on all sorts of systems, not just the
:18:49. > :18:54.engines and the rotor blades. Any particular part of that airframe
:18:55. > :19:02.might well be ultimately found is the cause of this accident. But it's
:19:03. > :19:09.only ten days since the helicopter came down and the investigators are
:19:10. > :19:17.looking at everything, every not in bold. People will want answers
:19:18. > :19:25.relatively quickly. What time frame could you put on this? I don't think
:19:26. > :19:32.we can. There's an awful lot of extra work to do. It may be
:19:33. > :19:36.something crops up tomorrow or the day after, which would give us a
:19:37. > :19:42.relatively clear indication as to what happened. But equally, that
:19:43. > :19:48.elusive bit of the puzzle may only be discovered six or 12 months from
:19:49. > :19:55.now. In the meantime, do questions still need to be asked about the
:19:56. > :20:05.fleet? Yes. There are an awful lot of these particular helicopters.
:20:06. > :20:11.Many police forces will want to know that their helicopters, the ones
:20:12. > :20:15.they are depending on for mission-critical operations every
:20:16. > :20:18.day, are safe to fly, so there is pressure on the investigators to
:20:19. > :20:21.come up with answers as quickly as possible.
:20:22. > :20:32.Now a quick look at tomorrow's front pages.
:20:33. > :20:37.That's all from me. I'll be back with Good Morning Scotland on Radio
:20:38. > :20:55.Scotland tomorrow at 6am. Gordon will be here tomorrow. Good night.
:20:56. > :20:56.We have entered a relatively settled spell of weather. But not completely