Scotland will become the first country in the world to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol after its government won a long legal battle yesterday. The aim is to reduce deaths and disease associated with heavy drinking and the huge pressure this puts on public services.
The policy, likely to take effect early next year, links the price of wine, beer, cider and spirits to their alcoholic strength. The planned minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol will mean a beer containing two units of alcohol must cost at least 拢1 and a bottle of wine with nine units no less than 拢4.50.
More pertinently, the price of a , which has 22.5 units and costs just 拢3.59 would rise to 拢11.25, bringing into question the survival of these products in Scotland.
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Alongside low-cost, high-strength lagers and cheap white spirits, these ciders are disproportionately bought by the heaviest drinkers and have helped to fuel alcohol problems in Scotland and across the UK.
This is the welcome conclusion to a long fight which began in 2012 when the Scottish government passed legislation to introduce minimum unit pricing. Alcohol industry bodies, led by the Scotch Whisky Association, launched legal action to try to block it. It argued that the policy clashes with EU law because it restricts trade between member states.
Saving lives
However, such restrictions are permitted if they seek to 鈥減rotect the life and health of humans鈥�, and if they are proportionate. The legal arguments focused on how 鈥減roportionate鈥� is defined, how best to assess it and whether minimum unit pricing passed that assessment.
After rulings in Scottish and European courts, the UK鈥檚 highest court, the Supreme Court, finally saw off the industry鈥檚 challenge. It said the Scottish government had appropriately considered evidence demonstrating that the measure is likely to be effective and that its potential health benefits were greater, and less damaging to free trade, than alternative approaches, such as increasing tax on all alcohol drinks.
To achieve the same reduction in deaths in heavy drinkers as a 50p minimum price per unit, alcohol duties would need to rise by 36 per cent.
This is a policy that will save lives. Our team at the University of Sheffield has been for nine years and has been at the heart of the debate. We estimate that a 50p minimum unit price in Scotland would , 2000 fewer hospital admissions and 3500 fewer crimes every year.
In addition, those gains are concentrated in heavy drinkers of lower socioeconomic status 鈥� in other words, those who experience the greatest harm from drinking. We also estimated that 400 drinkers have died in Scotland while the drinks industry pursued its legal challenge.
Related harms
Critics of the policy will complain about restricting choice and pricing out poor people. If only it were that simple. People are astonishingly bad at taking into account potential future consequences when making decisions, particularly when using an intoxicating and addictive substance.
What鈥檚 more, alcohol doesn鈥檛 only harm drinkers. In England, the National 91色情片 Service spends about 拢3 billion of taxpayers鈥� money every year on treating avoidable alcohol-related diseases and injuries, while alcohol-related crime, drunken disorder and colleagues off work with a hangover affect us all. And then there are other less obvious related problems including domestic violence, child neglect and family breakdown.
The Scottish victory is symbolic. The public health community hopes it will open the floodgates for more of the same. Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were awaiting the court decision before advancing their own minimum pricing policies. Meanwhile, in England, the idea is officially still 鈥渦nder review鈥� and is expected to remain so until evidence emerges of the policy鈥檚 impact in Scotland.
It is encouraging that a new public health policy has withstood fierce opposition from a multibillion pound industry. A defeat could have set back attempts to develop ambitious new approaches in all areas where strong commercial challenges are expected.
Scotland鈥檚 minimum price per unit of alcohol is a first. We鈥檙e confident it won鈥檛 be the last.
Read more: The campaign against alcohol abuse deserves two cheers;听Bottle and a half of wine is new UK weekly alcohol limit
