Professor Jim Lucey:

The Chairman asked a question about benzodiazepines. This is relevant to us. We have introduced a major initiative around benzodiazepine reduction. We have published it and it is available on our website. It has been striking how successful the initiative has been. Since benzodiazepines are prescribed, we need to address the standards around prescribing practice and manage them. When an organisation does that, it can bring about dramatic reductions in the volume of benzodiazepines dispensed. We have evidence to show that this works. This is something to which we are deeply committed.

This also speaks to the question of what we can do about addiction. As a society, we need to make choices and set goals for ourselves which we can then standardise with regard to services. If we, as a society, decide to make alcohol cheaper and more readily available or ubiquitous, then we will get the consumption of cheap alcohol everywhere. However, we can make a decision to make the choice in a balanced way in a free society and still protect those who are made vulnerable by having ubiquitous access to this substance. We must support the legislation to realise that aim. I take the Chairman's point. We very much support the legislation to which she referred. Indeed, we are keen to enhance it as a statement of where we should be going in terms of the health of the population. We are mental health specialists and advocates. We are interested in the health of the population. There is no health without mental health.