The devastating scale of alcohol abuse in Scotland is costing the country £2.25 billion a year - a figure that is more than double the previous estimate and even at that could be an underestimate, according to an official report.

The result is a “huge” knock-on effect to the economy. Alcohol effectively acts as a handbrake on the country, with lower productivity at work and days off from hangovers costing Scottish business £400million a year.

Shona Robison, the Public Health Minister, said Scotland's drink problem was holding back the country's potential. The Scottish Government is ploughing £120 million out of its budget of £30 billion into tackling the impact of alcohol abuse.

Government statisticians estimate that in 2006-07 the cost of alcohol misuse could be broken down into the following categories: the NHS (£405million); social work services (£170 million); criminal justice and the Fire Service (£385million); wider economic costs (£820million) and human/social costs (£470million). The report included the impact to children, psychiatric services and GP surgeries. The use of NHS beds to treat drinkers could cost the health service more than £150million.

Liver cirrhosis deaths, which have soared in Scotland in the past 30 years, are outstripping the rest of Europe, where deaths are falling.

The report said that premature deaths are estimated to cost Scotland £328million and that accident and emergency departments have been hit with a £32.2million burden. The police response to alcohol misuse is estimated to be costing £288million - with alcohol assumed to be behind 40 per cent of violent crimes. Ms Robison said: “Alcohol misuse isn't just damaging our health and straining our services, it's holding back our potential as a nation. The report also points out that there are a great many intangible costs to Scottish society from alcohol misuse - how do you put a price on domestic violence?”

The report - Costs of Alcohol Use and Misuse in Scotland - was based on published data in the past eight years. One of the most shocking trends it revealed was the overall acceleration in social and economic damage as a result of alcohol abuse.

In 2001 a similar report estimated the cost of alcohol misuse to be about £1.07 billion. In 2004-05 the Scottish Executive's health analytical services division estimated the cost as £1.125 billion.

The authors stated: “Many of the costs in terms of human suffering are intangible and are not quantified in routine data collection.” Where there was no tangible cost, they based their findings on averages and trends.

The report said there were 46,199 referrals to the children's hearing system in Scotland in 2006. Of these, 1,609 had grounds of “misused drugs or alcohol” and 19,086 were referred for “lack of parental care”.

The authors assumed that 24 per cent of these were down to alcohol abuse and put the cost to the children's hearing system at £2.3 million.