Funding for Healthy Eating Catering and Retail Schemes

Projects to encourage healthy eating including the Health Living Award for caterers and the Healthy Living Programme for convenience stores are to receive £7.5 million over the next three years as part of the Scottish Government's pledge to tackle health

Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, has announced that during the next three years over £200 million is set to be spent on preventing the ill health caused in part by alcohol misuse, smoking and obesity.

Smoking and alcohol cost Scotland an estimated £4.66 billion a year in terms of lost productivity, impacts on health services and the criminal justice system as well as the toll on children, families and communities.

In addition, smoking has long been recognised as the most important preventable cause of ill-health and premature death in Scotland. Each year it is linked to some 13,500 deaths and 33,500 hospital admissions.

It is estimated that a 1% increase in sport and physical activity would yield a £3.5 million saving each year from coronary heart disease, stroke and colon cancer alone.

In response to this, over the next three years the Scottish Government will invest:

● £126 million to support the continued implementation of the alcohol framework. This will include preventative measures such as alcohol brief interventions, diversionary activity for young people and services for those with existing alcohol problems and their families. The money will also be invested in reducing alcohol treatment waiting times. The target is for 90 per cent of clients to receive treatment within three weeks by March 2013

● £40 million over the next three years on a broad programme of smoking reduction measures, including NHS cessation services and smoking prevention activities across Scotland including innovative projects being piloted by boards such as interactive websites and incentive schemes for pregnant women in some deprived areas

£10.5 million delivering weight management services including child healthy weight, which aims to change how children eat and how active they are to stop BMI increase. As part of this programme, by 2014 a further 15,000 child healthy weight interventions will have been carried out

● £7.5 million on projects to encourage healthy eating, including the Health Living Award for caterers and the Healthy Living Programme for convenience stores. Work with the manufacturing industry is also under way to reduce the calories and salt content of food

£3 million on initiatives to support increasing physical activity building on current jogging and walking programmes and other projects aimed at encouraging people to get and stay active. This includes a number of projects targeting teenage girls which use dance as a central component and Paths for All, a community and workplace volunteer-led health walk project which aims to reduce the proportion of the population who are inactive with a particular focus on older people

£34 million rolling out the Keep Well health checks which offers all 40 to 64-year-olds living in deprived communities the opportunity to attend a health check. The health check focuses on any potential cardio-vascular disease but also covers wider lifestyle issues, mental health and social needs such as employability and benefits support. Those identified as at risk are referred on to further services including smoking cessation, alcohol interventions and diet/weight management or are prescribed appropriate medications

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon said: "Health in Scotland is improving but not quickly enough and we must continue to take action to address the health inequalities which exist between our more affluent and more deprived communities.

"Scotland's long-standing problems cannot be addressed overnight but we are taking and will continue to take significant action to address them through our efforts to reduce alcohol consumption, cut smoking rates, encourage active living and healthy eating, and promote positive mental health.

"In the Spending Review we set out the strength of our commitment to the health service in Scotland by retaining all health resource Barnett consequentials for the Scottish NHS.

"We also gave a very clear commitment that there would be a greater focus on preventative spending, focusing on preventing problems by intervening early, delivering better outcomes and value for money.

"Equally Well, the report on health inequalities, has already shifted the emphasis of our approach from dealing with the consequences of health inequalities to tackling the underlying causes such as poverty, employment, support for families and improving physical and social environments.

"Together, I am sure, that all of these efforts will ensure we can make a real difference to the future of Scotland's health as a nation."

More healthy eating news from Scotland.