Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the alcohol industry in Scotland

Prepared by Lisa Davie at Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP)

In Scotland, alcohol industry CSR activity is coordinated primarily through the Scottish Alcohol Industry Partnership (SAIP), with additional activity from individual producers (Diageo, Chivas Brothers / Pernod Ricard, Heineken, Molson Coors, Whyte and Mackay, Edrington, Bacardi, Tennent’s), from trade bodies (the Scotch Whisky Association, the Portman Group, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association) and from industry funded charities (Drinkaware, the TALK ABOUT Trust). Delivery is a mix of national campaigns, UK wide programmes with a Scottish footprint, and local Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAPs). All are framed around promoting so-called responsible or moderate drinking. Most reach children, young people, students, parents, teachers or licensed trade staff.

The programmes described below are the ones with the largest reach in Scotland at the time of writing. The list is not exhaustive; several smaller producer led initiatives (for example, Chivas Brothers’ Responsib’All staff-volunteering day, or Diageo’s DRINKiQ online quiz) also operate in Scotland but are either internal to the business or reach very small numbers.

1.    The Scottish Alcohol Industry Partnership (SAIP)

Project name	The Scottish Alcohol Industry Partnership (SAIP) – the umbrella body
Funder(s)	SAIP members (see below); secretariat provided by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA)
Running since	Formally constituted in the early 2010s; first chair (Kieran Healey-Ryder, Whyte and Mackay) appointed October 2023; Paul Waterson took over as chair in August 2025
Other partners	Diageo, Bacardi, Chivas Brothers/Pernod Ricard, Edrington, Heineken, Molson Coors, Whyte and Mackay, C&C Group/Tennent’s (via the Scottish Beer and Pub Association), the Scotch Whisky Association, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, the Portman Group, the Scottish Grocers’ Federation, the Scottish Retail Consortium, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, the National Association of Cider Makers, BII Scotland, TLT Solicitors
Stated goal	“To support, devise and deliver initiatives that contribute towards the promotion of responsible drinking and tackle alcohol related harm in Scotland”
Target group	Adults, parents, young people, retailers, licensed trade staff, Scottish policymakers
Website	www.saip.org.uk

 

SAIP is the vehicle through which most of the CSR activity described in this document is either funded, delivered or promoted. It is chaired from within the industry and its secretariat sits with the Scotch Whisky Association. Its stated purpose is the promotion of responsible drinking, but it also acts as a lobbying platform: it responds formally to Scottish Government consultations on minimum unit pricing, alcohol marketing and the Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan, and hosts regular Holyrood receptions for MSPs. Its most recent Holyrood event (March 2026) featured Drinkaware, CAP, Best Bar None and the Portman Group as partner organisations, and welcomed the Scottish Government’s Preventing Harm, Promoting Recovery: Scotland’s Alcohol & Drugs Strategic Plan 2026–2035 commitment to “engagement with business and industry” on the forthcoming alcohol harm prevention plan.

Critical note: SHAAP’s position, in line with the WHO 2024 guidance on engagement with the private sector on non-communicable diseases, is that the alcohol industry should not have a seat at the table when public health policy is being set. An industry whose revenue depends on increased consumption cannot be a neutral partner in reducing consumption. SAIP’s Holyrood presence, its responses to the alcohol marketing consultation and its opposition to further restrictions on availability all illustrate why the same body that funds “responsible drinking” campaigns simultaneously argues against the evidence-based measures that would most reduce harm.

 

2. The “It’ll Cost You!” proxy-purchase campaign

Project name	It’ll Cost You!
Funder(s)	SAIP (industry funded), with support from the Scottish Government
Running since	Piloted in North Lanarkshire in 2015; suspended during COVID-19; national roll-out from 2022; ran again 30 June – 11 August 2025 and confirmed for summer 2026
Other partners	Police Scotland, Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP), local authorities, the Scottish Grocers’ Federation
Stated goal	To reduce underage drinking by deterring adults from proxy-purchasing alcohol on behalf of under-18s (an offence under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 carrying a fine of up to £5,000 or up to three months’ imprisonment)
Target group	Adults – particularly parents and older peers – as potential proxy purchasers; retailers as the “first line of defence”
Website	www.saip.org.uk/itllcostyou

 

The campaign consists of posters, social media assets, retailer materials and joint patrols by Police Scotland and CAP co-ordinators during the summer school holidays. It is SAIP’s most visible campaign and the one most often cited to Scottish Government as evidence that the industry is “part of the solution.” The industry’s own evaluation of the North Lanarkshire pilot reported a 10% reduction in year-on-year public space assaults, a 51% reduction in reports of children drinking on the street, 38 adults detected for proxy purchase and two retailers reported for selling to minors. A separate 2024 iteration reported only eight detections nationally, which SAIP presents as evidence of improved awareness.

Critical note: The evaluations that support the campaign’s effectiveness are industry generated, use short follow-up periods and lack robust comparison areas. The tactic itself – shifting attention onto individual proxy purchasers – is characteristic of alcohol industry framing more broadly: it locates the problem in individual bad choices rather than in the affordability, availability or marketing of alcohol, which are the evidence based levers identified by the WHO. The campaign runs in parallel with sustained industry opposition to those very levers.

 

3. The Scotch Whisky Action Fund (SWAF) and its successor arrangement

Project name	The Scotch Whisky Action Fund (SWAF)
Funder(s)	The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), on behalf of Scotch Whisky producers
Running since	2013–2023 as a standalone grants programme; from 2024 replaced by a three year, £300,000 partnership with Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP)
Other partners	Administered by Foundation Scotland (an independent community foundation); from 2024, delivered jointly with CAP
Stated goal	“To invest in groups and organisations with innovative plans to reduce the impact of alcohol-related harm in Scotland’s communities”
Target group	Small charities, community groups and youth projects working with vulnerable adults, young people and families
Reach	89 awards totalling £1.17m over 2013–2023, reportedly supporting more than 66,000 people
Website	www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/industry-insights/a-responsible-industry/

 

SWAF ran for a decade as the flagship Scotland specific CSR grants programme of the Scotch Whisky industry. Grants of up to £25,000 per project were made annually to a mixture of new and continuation projects, with an independent panel chaired for many years by Dame Joan Stringer. Beneficiaries included Edinburgh Young Carers, Paisley YMCA, Rowan Alba, West Dunbartonshire CVS, Addictions Counselling Inverness, Absafe (Aberdeen) and Ayrshire Communities Education and Sport (ACES). The fund closed to new standalone applications in 2023.

In March 2024 the SWA announced that the fund’s successor would take the form of a three year, £300,000 partnership with Community Alcohol Partnerships (see Section 4). In effect, the SWA has redirected its main CSR grants stream from independent community charities to an industry run infrastructure body. The change tightens the industry’s control over the funded activity and reduces the visibility of independent grantee organisations.

Critical note: SWAF was often framed as evidence that the Scotch Whisky industry “invests in tackling alcohol harm.” In practice £1.17m over ten years is a small sum against the sector’s reported £8.1 billion contribution to the Scottish economy and against health and social care costs of alcohol in Scotland estimated at £500-700 million per year (SHAAP, 2025). The redirection of the fund into CAP in 2024 removes the distance that Foundation Scotland provided.

 

4. Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAPs) in Scotland

Project name	Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAPs)
Funder(s)	The Retail of Alcohol Standards Group (RASG, an industry body of the major UK grocery retailers under the Wine and Spirit Trade Association); from 2024, also the Scotch Whisky Association (£300,000 over three years via the former SWAF)
Running since	CAP model piloted by RASG in England in 2007; first Scottish CAP launched in East Edinburgh in 2013
Other partners	Local authorities, Police Scotland, trading standards, schools, youth services and individual retailers (Scotmid, Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl and independent stores)
Stated goal	“To reduce alcohol harm in children and young people, improve their health and wellbeing and enhance their communities,” with emphasis on preventing underage drinking
Target group	Children and young people (under 18); parents; adults responsible for proxy purchase; local retailers
Reach	More than 300 CAPs across the UK by early 2025; the CAP central team reports “particularly good progress” in Scotland; new-CAP launches UK-wide grew from 18 in 2024 to 55 in 2025 after additional funding was secured
Scottish CAPs	Active or recently active Scottish CAPs include several across Edinburgh (Portobello/Piershill, South East, Leith, Central), Airdrie, Motherwell, Kilsyth, East Dunbartonshire (Kirkintilloch), Midlothian, Orkney, Aberdeen, Moray, Fife (Burntisland) and parts of Glasgow. The Edinburgh CAP won CAP’s Excellence in Education Award at Westminster in March 2026
Website	www.communityalcoholpartnerships.co.uk

Structure of the CAPs in Scotland

Each Scottish CAP is a formal partnership between a local authority, Police Scotland, retailers and a range of local youth, education and health services, co-ordinated by a paid CAP officer. Their activities typically include retailer training on the “Challenge 25” age verification scheme, joint patrols in known street drinking hotspots, alcohol education inputs into schools and youth clubs, family workshops, and diversionary activities such as sport and creative projects for young people. Edinburgh’s prize winning work in 2025/26, for example, included the Sky Academy Studios and Midweek G.O.A.L.S. projects in partnership with James Gillespie’s High School, Boroughmuir High School, Lothian Buses, Edinburgh Leisure and youth work teams.

The delivery of the “It’ll Cost You!” campaign in local communities is now formally a CAP responsibility, which ties the Scottish CAP network directly into the SAIP national campaigns.

Critique of the CAP model

The most substantial peer-reviewed critique of CAPs is Petticrew et al., Community Alcohol Partnerships with the alcohol industry: what is their purpose and are they effective in reducing alcohol harms? (Journal of Public Health, 40(1), 2018, 16–31). Reviewing 88 CAP evaluations, the authors found that only three used a control or comparison area and that the available data “do not provide convincing evidence that CAPs are effective in reducing alcohol harms or anti-social behaviour.” They concluded that the CAPs’ “main role may be as an alcohol industry corporate social responsibility measure which is intended to limit the reputational damage associated with alcohol-related anti-social behaviour.” CAP’s own Progress through Partnership Scotland report and its annual reports continue to cite improvements in Challenge 25 pass rates and reductions in anti-social behaviour, but these outcomes are almost entirely self-reported and use short follow-up periods.

Critical note. CAPs illustrate a wider pattern seen in the other (Belgium and Italy) case studies: an industry funded partnership is positioned as “part of the solution” at local level, secures a seat alongside statutory partners (Police Scotland, local authorities, schools), and thereby earns political legitimacy at little cost. In Scotland this now also gives CAP a direct role in delivering alcohol education inputs to schools without the involvement of independent public health services. The redirection of Scotch Whisky Action Fund money into CAP from 2024 has consolidated this position.

 

5. The Smashed Project (Diageo / Collingwood Learning)

 

 

 

Project name	The Smashed Project (Smashed Live and Smashed Online)
Funder(s)	Diageo (the world’s largest spirits producer; owner of Johnnie Walker, Bell’s, J&B, Talisker, Lagavulin, Oban, Cardhu and a substantial share of Scotch Whisky production; also Guinness, Smirnoff, Baileys, Captain Morgan)
Running since	2004 in England; launched globally from 2017; Smashed Online launched 2020 and now available in 31 countries
Delivery partner	Collingwood Learning (independent theatre-in-education company based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire)
Stated goal	“To break the culture of underage drinking and reduce alcohol-related harm among young people”; Diageo’s stated target is to reach 10 million young people worldwide by 2030
Target group	Secondary school pupils aged 12-16; teachers; parents (via teacher resources)
Reach	UK: cumulative reach reported at 415,000 pupils in 2,115 schools since 2005 (drinksinitiatives.eu); Diageo itself cites 333,000 pupils in 1,400 UK schools in its 2024/25 GB reporting. Smashed Online available to more than 1 million pupils in c. 5,500 UK schools
Website	www.smashedproject.org

 

Smashed is Diageo’s flagship school CSR programme. It consists of a live theatre performance delivered by professional actors to a school hall audience, followed by an interactive workshop in which pupils question the cast about the choices the characters made. Teacher resources and a parent guide are provided. In 2020 the live tour was supplemented by Smashed Online, a free 60 minute e-learning course aligned to the PSHE Association’s programme. Smashed Live is currently delivered under the UK banner via Northern Ireland tours; the online version is available across the UK including Scotland. Diageo’s reporting does not disaggregate Scottish figures.

Critical note: The Smashed materials were one of three programmes analysed in the peer reviewed study by van Schalkwyk et al., Distilling the curriculum (PLOS One, January 2022), led from the University of Edinburgh and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The authors concluded that the resources “serve industry interests and promote moderate consumption while purportedly educating children about harms and influences of alcohol use.” Specifically, they found that the materials frame the problem as one of individual peer pressure and poor personal choice, minimise the seriousness of long term harm (“most will not go on to develop serious problems”), and make no mention of price, availability, marketing, or the role of the alcohol industry itself.

 

6. Drinkaware in Scotland

Project name	Drinkaware (UK) – Scottish activity, including the Scotland focused Drinking Check campaign and Drinkaware at Work
Funder(s)	Voluntary, unrestricted donations from more than 130 organisations across the drinks industry: producers, retailers, pub operators, supermarkets and sports associations. Contributions are proportionate to production or sales volume; Diageo and Tesco are among the largest donors. Approximate annual funding: £5 million
Running since	2007 (following a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding between the Portman Group, the UK Government, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Office). Successor to the earlier Drinkaware Trust
Other partners in Scotland	SAIP; the Considerate Constructors Scheme; Scottish Town Partnerships; Scottish Wholesale Association; West Lothian Council; Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce; SPFL Trust
Stated goal	“To reduce alcohol harm in the UK” through public education, digital tools, workplace resources and school materials
Target group	Adults (25-44 & 45-65 in particular); parents; young people (via Drinkaware for Education); employers and employees; sports fans
Scottish reach	The Scotland focused Drinking Check campaign delivered with SAIP (Sept-Dec 2024) reported 6095 completions of the digital Drinking Check tool (more than six times the previous year’s Scottish total), reach of 9.7 million people through digital advertising and 13 million impressions. 40% of completions came from “increasing risk” drinkers
Website	www.drinkaware.co.uk

 

Drinkaware is the largest industry funded alcohol education body operating in Scotland. It positions itself as an independent charity and its board contains public health representatives alongside industry nominated trustees. In Scotland it is best known for the Drinking Check (an online self assessment tool), the Drinkaware at Work training package delivered with SAIP in Scottish workplaces since 2019, and its Drinkaware for Education resources for secondary schools.

Critical note: The Drinkaware for Education materials were included in the van Schalkwyk et al. (2022) study cited above, which concluded that industry-funded alcohol education programmes “serve industry interests” and align with alcohol industry CSR discourses that “employ selective presentation of harms, including misinformation about cancer.” Maani, van Schalkwyk and Petticrew (International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2024) also documented, via freedom of information requests, how the Drinkaware/Public Health England Drink Free Days partnership “served commercial interests, including through displacing more effective policy options and marginalising civil society voices.” Institute of Alcohol Studies 2025 report Spin the Bottle: How the UK alcohol industry twists the facts on harm and responsibility identified Drinkaware among the industry funded voices used to promote voluntary measures over regulation.

 

7. The TALK ABOUT Trust – Talk About Alcohol

Project name	Talk About Alcohol (delivered by the TALK ABOUT Trust, formerly the Alcohol Education Trust)
Funder(s)	The TALK ABOUT Trust is a registered charity. Documented funders and donors have included the Distillers’ Charity (the Worshipful Company of Distillers), the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (funded by Diageo, Chivas Brothers / Pernod Ricard and others), LEAF (Lifeskills Education and Alcohol Foundation, a charity established under the UK Responsibility Deal with industry funding), the Longleigh Foundation and other trusts and foundations
Running since	Established 2010; renamed the TALK ABOUT Trust in February 2025; Scottish office in Glasgow, hosted by The Wise Group, opened in the late 2010s
Other partners	Endorsed by, and delivered through, secondary schools in England and Scotland; also delivered to sports clubs and youth organisations
Stated goal	“To advance education for the benefit of the public in the issues of alcohol, health and drinking habits of young people (age 11+) in the UK and their safety around alcohol”
Target group	Pupils aged 11-25, with core focus on 13-14 (the “tipping point” at which the charity says most young people first drink); teachers; parents; PSHE and PSE leads
Scottish materials	A Scotland-specific teacher workbook is available free of charge to Scottish secondary schools
Website	www.talkabouttrust.org / www.alcoholeducationtrust.org

 

Talk About Alcohol is the most widely disseminated non-industry branded alcohol education programme in UK secondary schools. It is not directly branded with any producer’s name, and the Trust is at pains to describe itself as an independent charity. Materials include a teacher workbook, six planned lessons with PowerPoints for Key Stage 3, the Alcohol and You pupil guide, the Talking to Kids parent guide and the BAFTA winning Just a few drinks films. The Trust’s Scottish office in Glasgow (hosted by The Wise Group) provides support and training to Scottish schools and produces a Scotland specific version of the teacher workbook that references the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence and SALSUS data.

Critical note: Talk About Alcohol was the third of the programmes analysed in van Schalkwyk et al., Distilling the curriculum (2022). Although the Trust receives income from a mixture of sources and is not “owned” by a single producer in the way that Smashed is, the authors traced substantial funding streams back to the alcohol industry via the Distillers’ Charity, the Wine and Spirit Education Trust and LEAF. Their analysis of the teaching materials found the same features as they identified in the Drinkaware and Smashed resources: an emphasis on individual responsibility and peer pressure, promotion of “responsible” or “moderate” consumption as the goal, and the omission of alcohol marketing, price and availability as relevant factors. From a Scottish public health perspective, the concern is that these materials are made available free of charge to Scottish schools that are under-resourced for PSE and, in the absence of a clearly identified funder, may not be recognised as industry influenced by teachers.

 

8. Overall commentary from SHAAP

The programmes described above share a set of recurring features. Alcohol harm is framed as a matter of individual choice and peer pressure; “responsible drinking” or “moderate consumption” is presented as the solution; parents and adults (particularly proxy-purchasers) are given the role of gatekeepers; and structural drivers of harm – price, availability, marketing, sports sponsorship, and industry conduct – are absent from the messaging. The same producers, trade bodies and industry funded charities that deliver these programmes also actively lobby against the evidence-based interventions that would most reduce those structural drivers of harm: minimum unit pricing (challenged by the Scotch Whisky Association through five years of litigation), restrictions on alcohol marketing (currently subject to a Scottish Government consultation opposed in its strongest form by SAIP and its members) and the current UK duty regime.

SHAAP’s position, informed by the evidence set out in Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity and the WHO 2024 guidance on engagement with the private sector on non-communicable diseases, is that:

• Industry funded educational programmes should not be delivered in Scottish schools. The Curriculum for Excellence should be resourced to allow independent, evidence based PSE input on alcohol, as an Ethical Code for education (as proposed by Eurocare Italia and echoed by SHAAP) would require.
• Alcohol industry actors should not participate in the design or delivery of Scottish public health policy on alcohol. Once evidence based policy has been determined, working with industry on implementation is legitimate. The distinction matters and is not made clearly enough in the current Scottish Government engagement framework.
• Schools, parents, community groups and local authorities in Scotland should be supported to identify industry funded materials and partnerships and to understand the pattern of interests that lies behind them. EUCAM’s mapping exercise is a valuable contribution to that awareness.

 

Over three people die an avoidable alcohol death in Scotland every day (ONS/NRS 2024 figures published in 2025). Problem alcohol use is estimated to cost the Scottish economy £3.56 billion per year, and health and social care costs alone £500-700 million. The educational, community and workplace CSR programmes described here do not address the drivers of that harm and, on the peer-reviewed evidence available, are not effective in reducing it.

Sources

• Community Alcohol Partnerships: www.communityalcoholpartnerships.co.uk (Annual Report 2025/2026, published 2 March 2026; “Progress through Partnership” Scotland report).
• Petticrew M, Douglas N, D’Souza P, Shi YM, Durand MA, Knai C, Eastmure E, Mays N. Community Alcohol Partnerships with the alcohol industry: what is their purpose and are they effective in reducing alcohol harms? Journal of Public Health 40(1), March 2018, 16-31.
• Scotch Whisky Action Fund and Foundation Scotland: www.scotch-whisky.org.uk; www.foundationscotland.org.uk.
• Scottish Alcohol Industry Partnership: www.saip.org.uk (partners list; “It’ll Cost You!” campaign; SAIP Manifesto 2025).
• Diageo (2024-25): Our Business in Great Britain; Our Commitment to Positive Drinking (Spirit of Progress); Smashed Project: www.smashedproject.org; Collingwood Learning.
• Drinkaware: www.drinkaware.co.uk (About; Governance, Funding and Support; Drinking Check Scotland campaign September-December 2024).
• TALK ABOUT Trust (formerly Alcohol Education Trust): www.talkabouttrust.org / www.alcoholeducationtrust.org.
• van Schalkwyk MCI, Petticrew M, Maani N. Distilling the curriculum: an analysis of alcohol industry-funded school-based youth education programmes. PLOS One, January 2022.
• Maani N, van Schalkwyk MCI, Petticrew M. The perils of partnership: interactions between Public Health England, Drinkaware, and the Portman Group surrounding the Drink Free Days campaign. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2024.
• SHAAP (2025). Spin the Bottle: How the UK alcohol industry twists the facts on harm and responsibility. Edinburgh: SHAAP.
• Scottish Government (2026). Preventing Harm, Promoting Recovery: Scotland’s Alcohol & Drugs Strategic Plan 2026-2035. Edinburgh.
  •