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News
Scottish Government consults on raising minimum unit pricing
The drinks industry in Scotland is being consulted on raising the minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol to more than 80p, it has been reported.
According to the Daily Record, the alcohol trade is being surveyed by the Scottish Government on the MUP, with options including keeping it at 50p, or increases to 60p, 70p, 80p or more than 80p.
Responses from firms will drive government decisions on MUP when the current 2018 policy expires next year, but there is already concern in the trade that the highest level could be set.
The Federation of Independent Retailers (FIR) said the potential top-tier rises could “price out” those drinking beer or wine. Analysis of raising MUP to 80p would raise an average bottle of Scotch whisky by more than £8 and a Blossom Hill red wine by almost £3.
Hassan Lal, the FIR President, told the Record: “We can see the argument for increasing the price which has been in place for five years, a time of inflation. However, over 80p is over the top.”
The Scotch Whisky Association said that alcohol misuse “cannot be tied to the effectiveness of a particular policy” and “evaluating the impact of MUP is not straightforward and has been made more complex by the pandemic”. It said the government should “fully consult on any future measures” with the alcohol industry “before considering the next steps on MUP”.
Impact
The news follows a report in January that Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) in Scotland had a “minimal” economic impact on the nation’s alcohol sector.
But this month, Tory MSP Dr Sandesh Gulhane has written to the UK Statistics Authority calling for an investigation into the Public Health Scotland report which claimed the minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol was having a “positive impact” on health outcomes.
Gulhane, the Scottish shadow health minister and a Conservative MSP, has written to chair of the authority, Sir Robert Chote, after Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf cited the final report in Holyrood, and said the policy was “quite literally saving lives”.
According to Gulhane, 32 of the 40 studies mentioned in the report don’t cite the health outcomes of MUP, and a further seven of the other eight studies into health outcomes reached negative or inconclusive verdicts. Only a single study, he claimed, said deaths might have been averted.
MUP
The original MUP began in May 2018, and was set at 50p, but it took six years since the law was first passed before it was formally introduced, as it had been challenged in court by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) which lost its final appeal in the Supreme Court in November 2017.
Scottish ministers said at the time that a minimum price would help tackle Scotland’s “unhealthy relationship with drink” by raising the price of cheap, high-strength alcohol. In 2016, Alcohol Focus Scotland alleged that the maximum recommended weekly intake of alcohol (14 units) could be bought for just £2.52 in Scotland. It added that high-strength cider and own-brand vodka and whisky could be bought for as little as 18p per unit of alcohol.
The SWA, on the other hand, argued that MUP was illegal under EU law and that it amounted to a “trade barrier” which “is a real concern for our industry”.