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Public health policies are being undermined and influenced by industries linked to tobacco, alcohol, and junk food, a coalition of 26 health organisations has claimed.

Health charities, including British Heart Foundation Scotland, warned on Tuesday that this influence can weaken measures designed to reduce preventable illness and premature death.

The report, launched by the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Alliance Scotland on Tuesday, said the findings have come at a time when improvements to Scotland’s health have “stalled”.

“Our country now has the lowest life expectancy in western Europe,” the report said.

“Preventable non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a major factor behind Scotland’s poor health outcomes. Key drivers include the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and related products, and food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt () also referred to as junk food.”

As a result, health charities have called for stronger safeguards to ensure public health policy is developed in the public interest.

“Our report highlights how industries linked to tobacco, alcohol and junk food use a well-established playbook of tactics to influence public health policy in Scotland,” Kym Kestell, lead for NCD Alliance Scotland, said.

“Tactics include challenging evidence of harm, funding favourable research, influencing evidence, and positioning themselves as legitimate stakeholders in public health, despite their clear conflicts of interest.

Ms Kestell added: “The needs of Scotland’s health should never compete with the vested interests of health-harming industries.

“Yet, the evidence and examples in the report show that public health policies have been repeatedly delayed, undermined, and weakened and progress to improve Scotland’s health has stalled.”

Ms Kestell said if Scotland is serious about tackling preventable ill-health and reducing health inequalities, leaders must ensure that policy decisions are “guided by evidence, have greater transparency, and have stronger safeguards that put people’s health before commercial interests”.

The report suggested that NCDs, which are long-lasting health conditions that cannot be passed directly from one person to another, are responsible for about 88% (55,000) of all deaths in Scotland each year.

Many of the leading risk factors for preventable NCDs, which are diseases that include Scotland’s biggest killers like cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, lung disease and type 2 diabetes, are strongly linked to the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy food and drinks.

Analysis from the British Heart Foundation suggests that as many as 9,000 deaths from NCDs about one in six deaths from these diseases could be prevented through public health initiatives.

However, the report has claimed that work to improve Scotland’s health is being watered down, delayed, or blocked altogether through various tactics to drive the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and junk food products, using price, promotions, widespread availability and marketing and advertising.

“For too long, the conversation around obesity has focused on individual choices while overlooking the commercial forces that expose children, families and communities to relentless marketing and promotion of products high in fat, sugar and salt, creating environments where the healthy choice is often the harder choice,” Julie Cameron, head of Obesity Action Scotland, said.

“This report shines a light on the tactics used by health-harming industries to delay, dilute and distract from effective public health action.

She continued: “The reality is that obesity is not simply the result of individual behaviour. It is driven by an obesogenic (obesity promoting) environment shaped by commercial interests and sustained through sophisticated marketing and influence.”

The report has asked MSPs, policymakers and those involved in the development of public health measures to recognise and acknowledge conflicts of interest and to prioritise collaboration and partnerships with partners and organisations that have no vested commercial interests in health-harming products.

It has also pushed for more transparency in public health policy development, which the report said should be protected from industries with conflicts of interest.

“MSPs and policymakers should therefore consider the wider benefits of prevention to the Scottish economy and prioritise preventative action that will support longer-term population health over any short-term arguments about impacts to health-harming industries,” the report said.

“Progress to act on preventable ill-health and death in Scotland has stalled. It is fundamentally important to the future of Scotland’s population-level health that we introduce and deliver comprehensive policies to address the commercial determinants of health.”

Public Health Minister Maree Todd said the Scottish Government is “laser-focused” on improving health, reducing health inequalities and supporting people to live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives.

“Our Population Health Framework, published jointly with Cosla, sets out our commitment to embedding a preventative approach to Scotland’s health,” Ms Todd said.

“Many of the root causes of ill health happen outside the health and care system and we are working with partners to tackle the impact of tobacco, alcohol and junk food.

She continued: “From October new regulations will restrict the promotion of less healthy food and drinks in store and online. We are making progress in tackling alcohol harms, by working closely with local Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships and other stakeholders to provide targeted support, backed by record levels of funding of over £160 million this year.”

Ms Todd said the Scottish Government also remains committed to a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034.

“Our Tobacco and Vaping Framework sets out our roadmap to our 2034 target, reducing smoking prevalence in our communities to 5% or less and reducing vaping among non-smokers and young people,” the public health minister said.