BSLM Responds to release of Health Under Influence: The Industry Playbook Behind Scotland’s Health Harms Report
By Dr Julie Gray
18th Sep, 2026
This week we were notified of NCD Alliance Scotland’s latest report, released on the 15th of September – ‘Health Under Influence: The Industry Playbook Behind Scotland’s Health Harms’
This report is positioned to guide MSPs and Public Health policymakers, exploring tactics used by health-harming industries and their impact on public health measures. It is packed full of statistics, examples and evidence in the context of Scotland’s health landscape.
It highlights next steps for policymakers to address and reduce industry interference in public health policy development and ensure that Scotland’s health is put before commercial interests.
Read the full report here
BSLM’s Scottish-based Trustee, Dr Julie Gray, provided comment on the release of this statement on BSLM’s behalf:
“Here at BSLM, we think that robust independent evidence should shape Scotland’s health policies.
As highlighted in NCD Alliance Scotland’s Health Under influence report, non-communicable diseases accounted for approximately 55,000 deaths in Scotland each year, which represents 88% of all deaths (1). This highlights the scale of the challenge facing Scotland and the need for a stronger focus on prevention. These are familiar statistics to us around Scotland’s health, as they are the basis for our Lifestyle Medicine Manifesto for a Healthier Scotland (2), which primarily focusses on integrating a prevention strategy that compliments the work in the Health Under Influence Report.
At BSLM, we believe prevention involves with equipping clinicians and other patient-facing professionals to support people in making informed, sustainable lifestyle changes. We also recognise that people’s ability to make and sustain these changes is influenced by the wider commercial, social and environmental factors discussed in the report. Public health policy should therefore be grounded in robust, independent evidence and consider both individual and population-level approaches.
Supporting healthier choices requires both effective individual support and environments that enable people to sustain those choices.”
Want to take action? Next steps for you are:
Write to your MSP to highlight the importance of this report
Highlight our stance by sharing this page on your social media or read our Lifestyle Medicine for a Healthier Scotland Manifesto here
Read more about NCD Alliance Scotland and the report here
As part of the Alliance, we’re proud to support this call for greater transparency about who influences health policy and how.
References:
Statistics, 2026 Compendium. Available at: https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/heart-statistics/heart-statisticspublications/cardiovascular-disease-statistics-2026